Mac put the first bullet in Pierce's right thigh. He let out a howl and dropped to one knee. "Untie the rope, Pierce. Now!" Mac's second shot only grazed Pierce's other thigh. Pierce stumbled over to the rope and quickly untied it.

Mac lowered Jill to the floor and, keeping his weapon close, loosened the noose around her neck until he could get it over her head. She gasped for breath and tried to speak.

"Shh, you're going to be all right," he said. "Don't talk. Just breathe."

She pulled Mac nearer. Her whisper was harsh and painful sounding, and he realized it took everything in her to get the words past her throat. "He has a gun."

The headlamp hadn't moved from the spot where Pierce had dropped after untying the rope. Mac flicked the beam of his flashlight to it and saw that the headlamp lay on the floor, the beam pointed at him. Pierce was gone!

Still on his knees beside Jill, Mac shone the flashlight across the room. Pierce couldn't have gotten away that quickly. Not wounded as he was. Mac would have heard him if he'd run. But Pierce hadn't run. He'd moved like a big cat, a cat with only one purpose-destroying its enemy. And Mac was that enemy, he realized as he felt the gun stab into his neck.

Pierce knocked the flashlight from Mac's hand. It hit the floor, the beam illuminating the three of them. Pierce squatted down next to Mac and eased the weapon from his fingers, then tossed it away into the darkness. Mac stared after it, memorizing where it was in case he got the chance to go after it.

Jill lay gasping on the floor, her hand to her throat, her eyes wide and terrified. Not for herself, but for him, Mac realized as Pierce leaned down.

"Why did you have to come back?" Pierce asked, squatting next to him, still pressing the barrel of the gun into his neck. "Why couldn't you just let this all end? She would have been my last, and then everything would have been forgotten."

"You're just kidding yourself, Pierce," Mac said, surprised by how calm he sounded. "You couldn't stop killing. Anyway, the cops know about the bodies you buried on this island. They're going to come after you."

Pierce laughed. "Nice try, old buddy, but they think Trevor killed those girls. Don't you just love the irony? Trevor stole my coins, not realizing what else I kept in that box. All my sweet things' jewelry. He didn't have a clue what he had. And now everyone believes he was the one who did those terrible things to those girls. It's too perfect."

"Not quite. Trevor and Arnie are dead. You can't blame this one on him or Arnie."

"I always get away with it," Pierce said, not sounding worried in the least. "I can make it look like you took off with her. Make sure someone uses your credit cards. I can keep the cops guessing for years until they tire of looking for the two of you."

Mac dropped his gaze to Jill. She motioned slowly with her head and his eyes followed the movement. She'd wrapped the rope loosely around Pierce's ankles as he'd been talking and now had the end, ready to pull it.

He gave only the slightest nod. She jerked the rope. At the same time, Mac drove his arm up, knocking the gun away. A shot exploded, echoing off the walls.

Pierce went down hard, his body kicking up dust from the floor as it hit. Mac dived for his weapon and was on Pierce before he could get up. He pressed the gun to the side of Pierce's head, and Pierce smiled up at him.

"You aren't going to kill me," he said. "It's not in you. And the b.i.t.c.h of it is, you know I can hire the best lawyer money can buy. I'll get off. Maybe a little time in a nice sanitarium. Then I'll be cured. I've gotten away with murder for years." The smile broadened. "I will again."

Mac could hear the coast guard boat nearing the island. "Yes, I know," he said to Pierce, and pulled the trigger.

Then he moved over to Jill.

Tears streaming down her cheeks, her eyes never leaving his face, she pulled Mac down and held him. He wrapped her in his arms.

"I knew you'd come back." Her words were a hoa.r.s.e whisper coming from her injured throat.

He kept her wrapped in his arms as he watched the lights of the coast guard boat draw nearer and nearer.

Epilogue.

Jill sat on the deck of her father's lake house and watched a sailboat move across the blue-green waters of Flathead Lake. She could smell the cherry blossoms on the slight breeze and hear her father and Darlene in the kitchen discussing their upcoming wedding.

Jill smiled at the thought of her father's happiness. It was matched only by her own. In the months since that horrible night at the Hillinger mansion, the memories had faded and blurred. Sometimes she still had nightmares but Mac was always there to hold her. She'd never felt safer. Or happier.

Mac had bought what Trevor had named Inspiration Island. He'd burned the old Hillinger mansion to the ground.

The remains of all the murdered young women had been removed and sent home for burial. At last their families could begin to heal. And Nathaniel Pierce was dead. He wouldn't hurt anyone ever again.

Jill turned at the sound of Mac's footfalls on the deck and smiled up at his handsome face. He stepped closer to her and she noticed he had one hand hidden behind his back.

"What?" she asked, laughing. Mac wasn't the kind of man who showered a woman with gifts. Thank goodness, she thought, remembering Trevor's.

"For you," Mac said shyly as he pulled the bouquet of wildflowers from behind his back.

Tears stung her eyes.

"I've never given flowers to a woman before," he said, dropping to his knees in front of her chair. "I wanted you to be the first."

She took the flowers, drawing him to her with her free arm. He kissed her neck and she felt that wonderful thrill she'd felt from the first.

And Mac had had been wrong. When they'd made love again, it been wrong. When they'd made love again, it was was more amazing than the first time. In fact, every time they made love was more amazing than the last. more amazing than the first time. In fact, every time they made love was more amazing than the last.

Their spring wedding was huge and held at the church in Bigfork, overlooking the lake. The same church where Jill's father and Darlene would be married next week.

Mac had moved his P.I. business down from Whitefish and into a building he'd bought across the street from Jill's bakery. Zoe and Shane had moved into Jill's old apartment over the bakery, both of them working part-time while they attended junior college in Kalispell.

"I can't believe the change in Shane," Mac had said.

And Shane hadn't been able to believe the change in his uncle. "He's, like, human."

Mac had laughed and pulled his new bride to him.

They'd bought a place on the lake. From it, Jill couldn't see Inspiration Island. Mac said maybe someday they would build a camp on the island for kids. The island needed laughter. But first it needed to heal.

Alistair and Heddy Forester sold their house on the lake and moved away. Jill saw Alistair before he left. He looked like a very old man. He'd told her again how sorry he was. "I wish I could turn back the clock," he said, and shook his head, tears in his eyes.

"There is something we haven't talked about," Mac said now, drawing back from her.

She smiled at him. They'd talked for days after what had happened. Talked about his first wife, Emily. Her death. Mac's fear of loving again. His confession that he'd fallen for Jill that first night in the cottage.

They had taken it slowly, spending time together, talking about everything. That bond had been there from the beginning, though. It made it easy. It felt so right.

"What haven't we talked about?" she asked, looking from her bouquet of beautiful flowers to him. He'd put them in a small jar with water. The jar brimmed with the bright colors of spring. Like love, she thought.

"Kids," he said.

"Kids?" She thought he was talking about his plan for the island. But then she looked into his eyes and felt a jolt. "Kids?" she repeated, her eyes filling with tears. She'd been so afraid he would never want children of their own. He'd taken the first step by letting himself love her completely, knowing he could lose her, just as he'd lost Emily, just as he'd almost lost Jill that night on the island.

Mac nodded. "Jill, I want to share this. I keep seeing you holding a baby in your arms. This love of ours, it's so strong...." He shook his head, at a loss for words.

He knew life could irreversibly change in an instant. Sometimes all it took was a kiss. His life had changed that night in the cottage when he'd kissed Jill Lawson. He couldn't explain it. But she was right, whatever had happened was more than s.e.x. Sometimes two people connected in a way that tore down all barriers and united them forever.

She leaned forward, cupped his face in her hands and pressed a kiss to his mouth. "Say the words," she whispered against his lips.

He pulled back enough to look into her eyes and smiled. He had no idea what the future held. But he was no longer afraid. Losing was the flip side of loving. But loving was worth it. Whatever time he had with Jill, he intended to enjoy every moment of it. He was no longer afraid of making the same mistakes his father had made. He wasn't his father. And Jill Lawson was like no woman he'd ever met.

"I love you." The words came out so easily. "I love you." He lifted her into his arms and spun her around. "I love you! And I want a baby!"

She was laughing, a wondrous sound, and he was laughing, too, holding her and spinning, the world spinning around them, the two of them dizzy with happiness.

As he stopped and let her slowly slide down so he could kiss her again, he looked into her eyes, promising to give her love, all the love now bursting in his heart. He kissed her, and then they were spinning and laughing.

He heard Jill's father and Darlene come out onto the deck.

"What in the world?" her father said.

"We've decided to have a baby!" Jill announced.

"Babies," Mac said, and kissed her. "Lots of babies."

Life changed in an instant. His had changed with one kiss.

Books by B.J. Daniels

HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE.

312-ODD MAN OUT

353-OUTLAWED!

417-HOTSHOT P.I.

446-UNDERCOVER CHRISTMAS

493-A FATHER FOR HER BABY

533-STOLEN MOMENTS

555-LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

566-INTIMATE SECRETS

585-THE AGENT'S SECRET CHILD

604-MYSTERY BRIDE

617-SECRET BODYGUARD

643-A WOMAN WITH A MYSTERY

654-HOWLING IN THE DARKNESS

687-PREMEDITATED MARRIAGE

716-THE MASKED MAN

744-MOUNTAIN SHERIFF*