Colby Agency: Colby Justice Part 16

"I'll track down the doctor and see if they have those X-ray results yet," her husband offered.

Victoria nodded, telling him with her eyes how much she appreciated his patience and understanding.

When the door had closed, she searched her son's face. "Has something happened that you haven't told me about?" Her daughter-in-law, Tasha, and granddaughter, Jamie, were her first thoughts. Victoria surely hoped not. Her limit had been reached.

"Yes."

Dear G.o.d, what now? She braced for more disastrous news.

"I realized something during the past thirty-six or so hours."

She nodded, not certain what he meant.

"Tasha, Jamie and you are the most important things in my life. Nothing else matters. I would be lost without a single one of you."

Victoria blinked back the tears. She didn't want to cry, that would only put him off.

"The past is done. It's over. I'm never looking back and wondering again. You and my father did everything possible to keep me safe. What happened was not your fault."

Victoria's defenses failed. The tears flowed like a river. For more than twenty years she had lived with that underlying current of pain...that she had failed. That the torture and abuse her son had endured had been her fault on some level.

He brushed away her tears with the back of his hand. "You did not fail me, Mother. You never have and you never will. And I'm not going to fail you."

She couldn't hold back any longer. Victoria pulled her son into her arms and wept like a child.

"All these years you've wanted me at the Colby Agency-at your side. That's where I will be from this day forward." He drew back, looked into her eyes. "You and I, we will take back what was lost in this ordeal. Together, we'll make it right."

"Thank you, Jim." Her voice quivered and she had to take a moment to pull herself together. "Your father would be so proud of you."

"And you," Jim urged. "He would be so very pleased with all you've done. You are the most remarkable woman."

Victoria traced the scar on his cheek that an old enemy had used to mark him. "A new beginning for the Colbys."

He smiled, something he rarely did. "Brand-new." He nodded to the door. "We have to get Lucas in here and share this with him. He's as much a part of this family as the rest of us."

Victoria clasped her hands and pressed them to her lips as she watched the two men she loved more than life embrace.

A brand new beginning...no one could stop them now.

"YOU TOOK THAT like a champ," Penny said as the doctor left the exam room.

Steele sat up, hung his legs over the side of the exam table and eyed the bandage on his side skeptically, then settled his gaze on hers. "It was easy. You were holding my hand."

She shrugged. "It was the least I could do since you didn't have a bullet to bite on. Besides, you held my hand while they taped up my little nicks." In fact, he'd refused treatment until after she had been taken care of. Her silly little sc.r.a.pes and cuts were nothing compared to his.

"I could still kill that b.a.s.t.a.r.d," Steele growled.

Pederson had attempted to coerce her into talking with his big, ugly knife. She'd held her ground better than she would have imagined. But Steele's arrival on the fourth floor and the subsequent battle in the conference room was what had stopped Pederson's torture tactics and sent him fleeing, with her in tow.

"You realize I don't have any clothes to put on," Steele commented drily.

Penny surveyed the hospital gown. "You look pretty cute in that getup."

He sent a pointed look at her jeans and sweater. "How did you end up with clothes?"

"Nicole, Ian's wife, brought me clothes." Penny reached for the bag on the chair behind her. "She brought you some, too."

Steele's expression brightened. "That's definitely good news."

Penny walked up to him, plopped the bag on the exam table beside him. "I was thinking that food would be really, really good right now."

He pulled her between his spread legs and draped his arms around her shoulders. For a long moment he didn't respond. Just toyed with her hair.

"Earth to Steele?" she teased. "Aren't you hungry?"

He tilted his face down to hers. "Yes." Then he kissed her. "Mmm," he murmured against her lips, "you taste so good."

She wiggled out of his arms. "Get dressed." She cleared her throat and crossed her arms over her tingling b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "We have to get out of here before we cause an embarra.s.sing incident."

He hoped off the table, dragged on the jeans from the bag and then stripped off the gown. The muscles of his arms and chest rippled with every move as he fished the long-sleeved s.h.i.+rt from the bag, then pulled it over his head. "Embarra.s.sing to who?"

"Our colleagues," she fired back. "Now hurry." Another appet.i.te was about to override her need for food. Things like his extremely intriguing kisses...and that glorious male body.

If he'd taken any longer to put on the socks and shoes she might have screamed.

He reached out, took her hand. "Let's go."

Definitely. She would follow this man anywhere, anytime. And slowly, but surely she would teach him to trust his heart again.

ISBN: 978-1-4268-5033-2.

Books by Debra Webb.

HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE.

983-A SOLDIER'S OATH*

989-HOSTAGE SITUATION*

995-COLBY VS. COLBY*

1023-COLBY REBUILT*

1042-GUARDIAN ANGEL*

1071-IDENt.i.tY UNKNOWN*

1092-MOTIVE: SECRET BABY 1108-SECRETS IN FOUR CORNERS 1145-SMALL-TOWN SECRETS**

1151-THE BRIDE'S SECRETS**

1157-HIS SECRET LIFE**

1173-FIRST NIGHT*

1188-COLBY LOCKDOWN**

1194-COLBY JUSTICE**