by Ivy Nelson
Isabelle scowled at her sister. “You just came out of a coma. It’s important that you rest.”
“I’m resting just fine. Sit down and stop being so stubborn.”
“Fine,” she said, plopping into one of the bedside chairs with a little too much force.
Carmen turned to Garrett. “I don’t know what you did to piss her off, but I feel sorry for you.”
Isabelle felt her blood pressure creeping up as Garrett flashed her sister his signature grin.
“I’m attempting to get back into her good graces if you have any pointers. Now, what were you about to tell me?”
Carmen lifted a weak hand to her face and brushed some hair away.
“How I got here, right? A couple days after you came to see me the second time, my attorney came to visit and said that another lawyer had filed a formal request for my immediate release with a judge and with the governor of Colorado. I couldn’t believe it. I knew you said that when this was all over, we could talk about getting me out early, but this was beyond my wildest imagination.”
Isabelle leaned forward to take in her sister’s story.
“The next day, a guard said I was being moved. Instead, it turned out I was being released, and they had arranged a halfway house for me. I was so grateful to you for pulling strings to get me out.”
“I didn’t, by the way,” Garrett said. He was staring at Isabelle as he said it, and for the first time, she thought she might believe him.
Carmen nodded. “It didn’t take me long to figure that out. Darren Gunn picked me up.”
Isabelle felt her eyes growing wide. “He what? How? I thought he was in jail.”
Garrett answered instead of Carmen. “He made bail a few hours before they released your sister.”
“So, you’re saying Darren Gunn pulled strings?” Isabelle asked incredulously.
Carmen laughed. “Will you just shut up and let me finish?”
Isabelle sighed and nodded. “Sorry, go ahead.”
“Right. Anyway, I knew as soon as I saw him outside the prison gate I was in trouble and that you weren’t the one who pulled the strings to get me out. I actually tried to go back inside, but they wouldn’t let me. I got in his car, and he took me to what is supposedly a halfway house, but when I went inside, I was attacked, and someone jammed a needle in my arm.”
Isabelle felt sick to her stomach. “Jesus, Carmen,” she breathed.
“Yeah.”
“Now for the tough question,” Garrett said. “Why did he want you dead?”
Carmen shook her head. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Darren Gunn is dead.”
Isabelle jerked her head in Garrett’s direction. “What? When?”
“Tuesday night sometime.”
Carmen gulped from her water glass.
“Slow down, Carmen. Do you need to take a break?”
Her sister shook her head. “I’m fine. If Darren is dead, that means they’re cleaning up and I don’t have anything to lose. They’ll come after me again if they can.”
“I’ll park an army of armed guards around your bed if I need to,” Garrett said.
“Somehow I think you actually would,” Carmen said.
“Start with something simpler, who are they?”
“Max James, Darren’s… boss? I guess. He was the head of a small smuggling operation.”
“Did you ever meet Max?” Garrett asked.
Carmen shook her head. “I only ever dealt with Darren, but he made it clear that Mr. James would insist on my eternal gratitude and cooperation for not letting me go to jail for stealing. I talked to him on the phone once.”
“What did you do for Darren?”
Carmen shuddered and pulled the blanket higher up on her. Isabelle sat staring at her. Was she telling the truth? Had Garrett not been the one to get her out of jail, thus putting her in danger?
“A few weeks after he fired me, Darren approached me with threats to my family and said he had a job for me. At first, the jobs were minor. Deliver a package here, meet someone and pick up a bag of cash somewhere else. Then things escalated and he wanted me to drive a truck. I have a theory about that.”
Garrett leaned forward and patted her hand. “I would love to hear it but right now let’s just get through the basics.”
“Right. Sorry. Through all of this, I was digging into who he was and their operation. I discovered that both Helen Peters and Susan Arno had been arrested while driving a truck. I didn’t want to go back to jail, so I started looking for an escape plan. The goal was to see if I could assume another identity, so I started by taking credit cards in other people’s names. Izzy and the girls were just practice runs. It was stupid. Somehow Darren found out what I was doing. He brought me to the warehouse late one night and his boss, Max James, was on the phone. They both threatened me and said if I wanted to live, I would keep being cooperative and drive the damn truck. I told them to go to hell and walked out. I half expected to get shot in the back. Instead, the police showed up on my doorstep the next day and arrested me for credit card fraud and attempted identity theft.”
Isabelle closed her eyes. She felt like such a terrible person for the way she’d treated Garrett. Though she wasn’t sure she wanted to jump back into a relationship with him, she definitely owed him an apology.
Garrett stood. “I think I’ve heard enough for now. Thank you, Carmen. I might want to come back tomorrow, but I’ll call first this time.”
Turning, he faced Isabelle. “I’m ready to talk whenever you are, Doll.”
With that, he strode for the door.
“You better fuckin’ chase him, Izzy,” Carmen said.
Isabelle shoved out of her chair and jogged out of the room.
“Garrett, wait.”
He screeched to a halt and reversed course.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I don’t know if there’s a future for us or not, but I’m sorry.”
He closed the distance between them and cupped her cheek. “As am I, Isabelle. The only difference is, I’m quite certain about our future. I’ll be here when you come around.” He lowered his head and pressed the softest kiss to her lips before he turned and walked away.
Dazed, she watched him until he disappeared around a corner. Had that really just happened?
Back in Carmen’s room, a nurse arrived to discuss how soon she could be released.
“Wait, do you think I’ll have to go back to prison?”
Isabelle shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. As far as I can tell, your release was completely legal on paper. It’s just a question of whether they can legally reverse it.”
Four hours later, Isabelle stepped out of the hospital to go home for the night and Aaron jumped up from his normal spot on the bench. “Sure I can’t take you somewhere?”
This time Isabelle smiled. “I’m sure, Aaron. I like driving. But you’re welcome to follow me home if that will appease your boss.”
In her dad’s truck, she looked at her phone. A text from Garrett was waiting for her.
Can you meet me at the warehouse so we can put this mess behind us?
She frowned. What could they possibly do at the warehouse?
When?
The response came as she was starting the vehicle.
Right away.
Was something happening? She didn’t know if she was ready to be alone with him. Not because of something he might do, but for fear that she wouldn’t be able to control herself and they would wind up in bed before they’d had a chance to talk properly.
Pulling up to the hospital driveway, she sat for a moment contemplating whether to go left and go home or go right and go to the warehouse.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Garrett’s driver peeled into the parking lot of the warehouse after being let in the gate. The car hadn’t completely stopped when he jumped out and took off in a run.
“Sir, Mr. Oliver, wait!” Jeff hollered as he jumped out and followed.
T
here wasn’t time. Isabelle was in trouble and he knew it.
They were in the middle of an emergency board meeting when Lance leaned over and whispered that someone had text Isabelle from the same number that had called the office twice. Garrett knew it was Maddox, and after Lance managed to get in and pull out the actual texts that appeared to have been sent from Garrett’s number, he knew he had to get to her.
On his way, his own phone had lit up with a text message from Isabelle, asking her to meet him, but he knew better.
Now he was tearing across the parking lot as fast as he could to get to her.
A hand gripped his arm and he skidded to a halt.
“Let me go, Jeff.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Sir. You need to let us check out the situation. If something is wrong, you don’t want to risk getting Isabelle hurt or worse because you went in halfcocked. What exactly is your plan?”
Garrett’s shoulders slumped. He didn’t have one. He was running on pure adrenaline and a need to save Isabelle.
“I’ve already got Rick and some of the others on their way. Aaron followed her here but stayed back because he didn’t realize what was going on. Let’s do this the right way, Garrett.”
He blew out a breath. “Thank you, Jeff. You’re right. Just keep her safe.”
He leaned against the car and waited while Jeff called in more reinforcements. His eyes scanned the parking lot, looking for signs of Isabelle. She was definitely here because her security detail followed her, but he didn’t see her car or her dad’s truck.
As Jeff was walking back to update him, the side door to one of the storage buildings opened. Garrett jerked in that direction and Jeff pulled a gun from inside his jacket.
“Oh darn. You got here a lot quicker than I thought you would.” Maddox seemed as surprised to see them as they were to see him.
“What the fuck are you doing here? Where is Isabelle?” Garrett snarled, fighting the urge to cross the parking lot and deck him.
“I had no intention of taking your girlfriend or killing you,” he said as he inched closer.
“Stay back or I will shoot you,” Jeff barked.
“You wouldn’t do that,” Maddox said pulling something out of his pocket. “If I don’t get to finish what I have to say, this entire storage building goes up and Garrett gets to watch his girlfriend be blown to smithereens.”
“You son of a bitch. What did you do?”
Maddox gave him a grin. “Like I said, none of this was in the plan. We were just supposed to hurt your business, maybe take the facility out of commission. Just irritate you, that’s really all I wanted. But Darren went rogue after you fired him, and Isabelle pointed fingers so obviously, I had to deal with him. Now that you’re on to my little operation here, and Isabelle likely knows too much from her sister, I just have to clean up my mess and go back into hiding. I’m sure once you’re dead I’ll be able to resume my leadership of the family business.”
Garrett stalked his direction. “What is all of this? Revenge? For what exactly? You nearly drove the business into the ground with your illegal dealings and after your car accident you were never the same. I did nothing to you, and you know it.”
“No, you don’t,” he said, waving whatever device he had in his hand. “I wouldn’t come any closer if I were you. Don’t want to start the fireworks early.”
He felt a knot in his stomach. “Where is Isabelle?”
“Inside. I made sure she was comfortable.”
His brother had gone insane.
“Sir, back up and let us handle this,” Jeff said quietly. “We have confirmation that she’s inside and there are explosives.”
Fuck. The knot turned to a pile of rocks and he thought he might be sick.
Jeff touched the earpiece he wore. “Thanks Rick,” he muttered, speaking low enough that Maddox couldn’t hear him. His gun stayed trained on Maddox.
To Garrett he said, “Keep him talking if you can.”
“How did Isabelle get mixed up in any of this?” Garrett asked.
“Darren was a hothead. I never should have trusted him, but he was easy to persuade because he’s greedy. I told him to send a message to Carmen that we could still make her life hell if she talked to anyone. When orders came from your office to lay people off, he was supposed to fire everyone in her family. I had no idea Isabelle was your girlfriend or I might not have had him do that. When you came in and fired him after Isabelle pointed a finger at him, he lost sight of the bigger picture and just wanted to hurt her. So really, you should thank me for killing him.”
“Why? You’re standing here threatening to kill her.”
“You haven’t even asked what I want.”
“I assume you brought me here to watch you kill Isabelle.”
He let out a staccato laugh. “You know what they say about assumptions. No. That’s not the reason, though that is my fallback plan if you don’t cooperate.”
“What do you want then?” he asked, clenching his fists.
“I want you to step down as CEO and sign the company over to me. And my, we’ll call him a benefactor, wants the added bonus of you getting the fuck out of Colorado and Solitaire.”
Garrett cocked one eyebrow up. Maybe there was something to the theory Jax had. “Is that all you want?” he asked.
“Easy, wouldn’t you agree? Sign over the company. You can even give yourself a nice little bonus to live on. You get to keep your girlfriend and I get what was mine to begin with.”
Garrett shook his head in disgust. “You make me fucking sick, Maddox.”
“What’s it going to be, Gary?”
Before Garrett could answer, Maddox crumpled to the ground at the same time a loud shot rang out.
Jeff had fired his weapon.
“What the fuck did you do?” Garrett yelled as he ran in the direction of his brother’s body. The bullet had hit him square in the center of his forehead.
“Sir, we already have a bomb tech inside working on freeing Isabelle. Once they confirmed that he wasn’t holding a dead-man switch, they encouraged me to take him out so he couldn’t detonate the device before the techs finished disarming it.”
He jerked open the door, knowing it wasn’t rigged because Maddox had opened it earlier, and strode into the storage bay. Isabelle was sitting stock still on a chair while a man in full explosive protection gear lay beneath her.
“Stay back please, Mr. Oliver. Though having you in here seems to have lowered her heart. Just don’t come closer.”
“Christ, Isabelle. I’m so sorry,” he murmured. “I got here as fast as I could.”
She gave him a pained smile. “How did you know to get here? It sounded like you showed up seconds after he sent the text from my phone.”
Garrett smiled. “Confession time. After you shattered your screen and I replaced your phone, I may or may not have given you a phone I could track. Lance was able to tell me the minute you got a text from my brother. It was from the same number he’d been using, he just used a spoofing software to make it look like it was coming from me.”
“I’m really glad you’re here,” she whispered. “I’m scared.”
“Shhh, Doll. It’s gonna be OK.”
“Is Carmen OK? He said he was going after her next.”
“We’ll check on her, but she should have security there, and unless Maddox is working with more people, she should be safe. Jeff shot him in the head.”
Isabelle’s mouth dropped open.
“Whoa, Mr. Oliver, the point is to keep her calm while I work, not scare the piss out of her,” the bomb tech said from beneath her chair.
“I’m almost done here, honey,” he said to Isabelle.
“I’m sorry about Maddox,” Isabelle said after a few deep breaths.
Garrett shook his head. “I’m not. At least not right now. I may feel differently when I wake up in the morning and it hits me that my entire family is gone, but right now, I’m feeling like I would have pulled the tri
gger myself if given a chance.”
“Oh Garrett, your entire family isn’t gone. You’ve got everyone at Solitaire. You’ve got me.”
For the first time since he’d dropped her off at the hospital, he felt a glimmer of hope.
“Do you mean that, Isabelle?”
“OK, honey. It’s safe, you can get up.”
A sob escaped her throat and she bolted from the chair and ran to him. He wrapped his arms around her and let her cry. “Shh. It’s OK, baby. You’re safe. I’ve got you. I love you.”
• • •
Isabelle held Carmen’s hand as they walked into the house together. Garrett had indeed bought the place and insisted her family stay in it. There was a bit of grumbling from her father, but Uncle Henry had talked some sense into him.
It had been a week since Maddox Oliver tried to kidnap and kill her, and she still had nightmares. Today though, they were bringing her sister home after making a full recovery. The judge who signed off on her release and the governor of Colorado had both called to personally assure her that Carmen would not be going back to prison.
As for her relationship with Garrett, she had reverted to taking things slow, much to his disappointment. But he was taking it in stride. Tonight, they were going to ramp things up though. She was going to the high protocol dinner at Solitaire as his submissive.
He’d spent the last week trying to make up for what happened with his brother and he’d been more open with her than ever before.
“This place is amazing,” Carmen said as she looked around. “Where am I going to sleep? I want to lay down I think.”
“Catarina wanted to move back into a room with Sarah and let you have her room, but you can share my room.”
Carmen smirked. “I have a feeling you’ll be moving out soon anyway.”
Isabelle just shook her head. “Stop that. I’m not going anywhere. Garrett and I are starting over and taking things slow.”
“Right,” her sister said, skeptically.
“I think you better go take that nap,” Isabelle said. “Just let me get a few things out of there for later. I don’t want to disturb you if you’re still sleeping.”