He nodded slowly. "You get clean, Angela, you do the things you say you're going to do, and I'll make that happen. But you've gotta be clean, you understand? I don't want him anywhere near you when you're using. And I won't have him within a mile of a man like Vinnie."

She stared up at him. "You'll really let me see him?"

He nodded. "I'm not made of stone. You show me you've really changed and I will."

They were at the car now. She stood near the passenger door, her hand on the handle. "Thank you, Jim. You can't know how much that means to me."

"Yeah, thank you, Jim."

Jim whirled at the deep, sarcasm-laden voice that came from behind him, but not in time. The tire iron caught him upside the head before he could even blink. His vision exploded. He went to his knees, struggled to stay conscious, but then the second blow landed and he went over onto his side.

"Vinnie, stop it!" Angela cried. You're gonna kill him!"

Jim lay there, numb, slipping away.

"I'm not gonna kill him. I need him alive-to retract his statement and clear my name once and for all. Go on, go get the kid."

"But, Vinnie, can't I have some now? Just a pinch, babe. I need it. I did everything you said, just the way you told me. I did good, didn't I?"

"You did good, but you're not done." Hands gripped his arms, and Jim felt his body being dragged over the driveway, then the ground. "Go get the kid," Vinnie repeated. "Then we'll see."

God, no. They were going after Tyler. No, it couldn't happen! He had to stay awake, had to get up, had to...

"Stay down, Corona." A boot connected with his ribs, then his head. And blackness descended.

Kara paced in the church's tiny rectory, counting off steps across the room. Nine. Nine steps. But she'd traversed it so many times by now that she thought she'd clocked nine hundred.

"Honey, they probably had a flat tire...or something," Maya said.

"Or maybe he's just not coming." Kara closed her eyes, tried to quell the doubts in her mind, but there was no silencing them. Not now.

"Of course he's coming," Maya told her. "Mom's on the phone right now, trying to get hold of someone. And you know the guys were going over there so they could all come to the church together. They'd have let us know if anything was wrong."

The full male contingent of her immediate family, plus Jimmy's partner and best man fresh out of the hospital, Kara thought. What would they do when Jimmy told them he'd changed his mind? The idea of them going to get him hadn't been to force him to show up. They'd wanted to make him feel a part of the family, surrounded by the rest of the men. An exercise in male bonding, she'd supposed.

Or maybe she shouldn't have believed that lame explanation. Maybe her brothers-in-law had sensed, as she had, that Jimmy didn't love her. That this marriage was based on something else entirely. Probably they'd known from the start-maybe men could see that kind of thing in other men. And most likely they would bring him here on the end of a shotgun barrel if necessary.

She didn't want him like that, though.

From beyond the rectory door she heard her mother cussing at the telephone. Her mother never cussed. Especially not in church.

"It's enough, it's just enough already," Kara said. "He's a half hour late. He's not coming." She reached behind her for the zipper, intending to get out of the gorgeous gown so she wouldn't have to keep pacing back and forth in front of its reflection. It was a sorry, sad reminder of her ridiculous little fantasy.

She couldn't reach the zipper, though, and she sent a desperate look over her shoulder. "Someone get me out of this thing."

"Kara, don't. Just give it a little more time," Edie said.

Kara turned fully and glared at her. "Isn't it obvious to anyone but me? He's not coming!" She hated the tears for burning in her eyes, forcing their way out.

"That's it," Mel barked. "I'm going over there. If this joker thinks he can get away with pulling this kind of crap on my sister-"

"Something's wrong."

Everyone fell silent as all eyes turned to Selene, who'd been keeping the twins occupied by playing Chutes and Ladders with them on the pastor's desk.

"What is it, Selene?" Maya asked. "What are you sensing?"

Selene met her eyes, then her gaze slid to Kara's. It was grim and dark. "I don't know, but I know it's not what you think. Something's...wrong. Big and dark and wrong. I think we need to go over there."

Kara felt the blood drain from her face. Guilt swamped her. She'd been pacing and feeling sorry for herself and becoming increasingly angry at Jimmy. What if something had happened to him? Visions of a car accident on the way to the church, of flaming wreckage, suddenly swirled into her mind and terrified her. "What about Tyler?" she whispered. Then she bunched her skirts up in her fists and headed for the rectory door, flinging it open, racing down the aisle of the church toward the doors that stood at the far end.

Before she got there, the doors opened. Caleb stood there, and the look on his face stopped her in her tracks. She stood four feet from him, her skirt in her hands.

"Caleb, what's happened?" Kara asked, barely aware of her mother and sisters gathering around her, touching her, holding her.

"Jim's been hurt. You'd better come with me, hon. We need to get to the hospital."

"Hospital?" She pressed a hand to her chest and started forward on wobbly knees. "What happened? Is he all right?"

Caleb took her arm and led her through the doors as the others followed. "We don't know. We found him unconscious in the backyard, just inside the gate. Looks like he took a blow to the head."

She frowned. It made no sense to her stressed, overwrought mind. Poor Tyler, he must be scared half to death. Then she lifted her gaze to Caleb's as he opened the passenger door of his car and held it for her. "How bad?" she whispered.

"We don't know, honey. We just don't know. Wade took him to the E.R. and I came right over here."

"Where's Alex?" Edie asked.

Caleb sent her a look. "He and Colby are with the police out at the house."

"Police?" Everything in Kara went icy cold as things began clicking into place in her mind. "Police, Caleb?"

He nodded. "Kara-" He drew a breath, closed his eyes. "Kara, we can't find Tyler."

Her knees buckled. If Caleb hadn't been there, she'd have fallen to the ground.

Her mother was quick to come to her aid, as well, pulling Kara's arm around her shoulders, taking her from Caleb's strong arms and easing her onto the seat of the car. Then she turned and took charge, and Kara was so very glad Vidalia was the way she was. She needed that right now.

"Mel, get over to that house and get to work on this with your husband. It's what you two do, after all. Maya, you take the twins home and get on the phone. I want you to phone everyone in town and get them to help search for that little boy. Selene, go with her. Get a change of clothes for your sister and bring them to the hospital. Edie, you may as well come with us, since Wade's at the E.R. already." Then she nodded to Caleb. "Get us to the hospital, son, and don't dawdle about it."

Then she got into the front seat beside Kara, closed the door and wrapped her hand around her daughter's.

Kara looked up at her mother, tears in her eyes. "We have to find Tyler."

"By the time we get to the hospital, half the town will be out looking for him, honey. And we'll join them, too. But you have to see Jim first, don't you think?"

"I..." She lowered her head, shaking it slowly. "I'm so torn, I don't know what to do."

"That's why I'm here, child. You just do what I tell you until your head stops spinning and you can decide for yourself again. You have to see him-he may be able to tell us something to help us find the boy."

Kara closed her eyes as Caleb hit the gas. The car lurched forward, spitting gravel in its wake. She saw her sisters behind them, all of them in motion. Maya was explaining things to Reverend Jackson as she gathered the twins in her arms. Kara turned again to her mother, saw the worry in her eyes. "We'll find him. We will find him," she whispered, needing to hear someone-her mother, the strongest woman in the world-confirm it for her.

"Damn straight we will," Vidalia Brand said. "And heaven help any son of a gun who lays a finger on that child until we do. No one messes with one of Vidalia Brand's grandchildren without paying, and paying dearly."

Chapter 13.

"Aren't we almost there?"

"Stop whining, kid," Vinnie snapped. "We'll be there when we get there."

Vinnie wasn't real happy with Tyler, Angela thought. But he hadn't kicked or screamed or cried so far, and she hoped he wouldn't.

"So my dad's waiting there already? Why did he leave?"

"Like I told you," Vinnie said, "it was an emergency. We're supposed to bring you to him."

"At the church?"

Angela looked at the boy sharply. "That's where you were going all dressed up, I'll bet. To the church."

"Course it is. You gotta get dressed up for a weddin'."

She shot a look at Vinnie.

"I'm gonna be the ring-bear!" Tyler tugged at his bow tie yet again. He hadn't stopped chattering or fidgeting since they'd put him in the car. She wished he would quit already. He was giving her a headache.

"Do you guys know Kara? She's the lady my dad's gonna marry. And then she'll be my new mom."

Ang winced a little. Hell, it wasn't as if being a mother was her life's ambition. Especially not to a disabled kid who never shut up. She'd never wanted him-God, the months of struggling to stay clean while she'd carried him just so he wouldn't be born messed up. She'd slipped a few times. But it hadn't hurt him any. She tended to think the bastards who told women to stop living during pregnancy were overdramatizing things. No smoking, no drinking, no drugs. Hell, they didn't even want you taking over-the-counter stuff, aside from those horse-size prenatal vitamins. Her pregnancy had been hell. And in the end, all those months of suffering hadn't mattered-he ended up all screwed up anyway. But it still jabbed her a little to hear Tyler refer to another woman as his mom.

Her buzz was waning. She needed another hit.

"And Mrs. Brand-Vidalia-she'll be my real grandma. I never even had a real grandma before."

"That's real nice, Tyler," Ang said. He was buckled up in the backseat. She figured she could manage a hit without him even noticing. She reached for the case on the seat between her and Vinnie, but Vinnie covered her hand with his own.

"When I say. Understand?"

She thinned her lips, angry now.

"And I'm gonna have aunts and uncles and cousins," Tyler chattered on. "And as soon as the weddin's over I'm gonna ask for a puppy. Dad will prob'ly say no, but Kara won't. She loves animals, just like me. So I bet she'll get me a puppy. And then everything will be perfect."

Angela turned in her seat, looking back at him with a frown. He wore braces on both legs and couldn't walk without those ugly, cumbersome crutches. In what universe did that qualify as perfect?

"I have to go to the bathroom. Are we almost there?"

"Let's stop for a break," Vinnie said. "I have to call your dad anyway and make sure my directions are all right."

"I don't think they are, mister. I think we must have gone way too far by now."

He was smart, Angela thought. Not a stupid kid. They'd been driving for forty-five minutes. Frankly she'd had enough of it herself. Vinnie pulled into the parking lot of the motel where they'd been holed up for the past three days. Vinnie had barely let her stick her head outside the door of their room, said the police were looking for them. She thought he'd been making things up just to keep her under his thumb, until she'd spoken to Jim.

Poor Jim. Vinnie didn't have to hit him as hard as he had. She hoped he'd be all right.

"Let's go inside," Vinnie said. "I'll give your dad a call, make sure things are on schedule. Don't worry about a thing, kid."

"I'm scared I'll miss the weddin'," Tyler confessed, unbuckling his seat belt, opening his door. Angela got out her own door and headed straight to the room-she had stashed away a little supply of her own and she was damned if she was waiting to use it.

"Angie, what's-a matter with you anyway?"

She looked over her shoulder to see Vinnie rolling his eyes, then he opened the back door and helped Tyler get out and up onto his crutches. "There's no way your dad would start things without you, kid. Besides," Vinnie added with a look at his watch, "it's not even time yet. Don't worry."

"Okay."

He walked beside the boy toward the motel room. Ang stopped watching them and finished unlocking the door. Then she went inside, straight to the bathroom. She slammed the door and locked it behind her. Tyler had to go, he'd said. But hell, he could wait. This would only take a minute.

Kara ran through the closest entrance to the emergency room, ignoring that its doors were clearly marked as being for E.R. patients only. She looked left and right, spotted a desk and headed for it, still clinging to her skirts. She heard the stampede of footsteps behind her-Edie and Cal and her mother. "Jimmy Corona," she barked at the nurse there. "Where is he?"

The woman blinked at her, probably unused to seeing women in bridal gowns racing frantically through her emergency room. Before she opened her mouth to speak, Wade was there, gripping Kara's shoulders, turning her to face him.

She searched his eyes, desperation and fear clawing at her chest. "Where is he, Wade? Is he all right?"

"They're still working on him. Already stitched him up, then took him down to X-ray. Going to run a CT scan and then they'll know more."

"Is he conscious?" she asked.

"No." Wade blinked, lowering his head. "You look so beautiful, Kara. I'm damn sorry your special day got ruined. If the guys and I had arrived five minutes sooner-"

"Don't blame yourself," she said. Then she pulled free of his embrace because a man and a woman in white appeared pushing a stretcher along the hall and into a room. She glimpsed just one hand-one strong, tanned hand lying still on the white sheets-and she knew it was him. "Jimmy!"

She raced toward him even as they pushed him into a treatment room. Hesitating in the doorway, she sought permission from the faces that surrounded him. The woman eyed her gown and her eyes turned sympathetic. "You must be Kara," she said. "Wade Armstrong told us you'd be coming." She returned her attention to Jimmy. She was taping leads to his chest. "Come on in, hon," she said without looking up again. "Sit with him a while. Use the call button if you need us."

"But-but...do you know anything? How is he?"

The male nurse, who'd been adjusting the IV line, glanced her way. "The doctor still has to look at his films. We don't know much yet. He's been restless. Muttering. Nothing coherent. You sit with him, talk to him. It can't hurt."

She nodded, and as the two left the room, she moved slowly toward the bed. He lay on his back, his clothes were missing-from the waist up at least. A sheet covered his chest, but his arms lay outside the covers. The leads they had fastened to his chest were connected to a monitor that bleated a slow, steady rhythm. There was a huge white bandage plastered to one side of his head. His face was paler than she had ever seen it, except for the purpling bruise that ran from one side of his forehead down to and including his cheekbone.

She swallowed hard, leaned closer, lifted a trembling hand to touch his face. "Oh, Jimmy."

She heard a throat clear. "Excuse me. Mrs. Corona?"