GoodKnight: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “You just don’t want to do it because you know whoever tells Cole is gonna have to take a few punches,” I accused.

  “I have a company to run,” he argued. “I can’t afford any injuries right now.”

  “I’m a medic.”

  “We have another.”

  “So, you’re saying I’m disposable?”

  “Not entirely, but there’s only one of me,” he grinned.

  “You know, one of these days, I’m gonna sic Maggie on you.”

  He snorted and headed for the door. “She’s on my ass twenty-four, seven. That threat is weak at best.”

  God, I really fucking hated having to do this. I pulled out my phone and dialed his number. I really fucking hoped that he didn’t answer. Maybe I could put this off for a few hours and have Knight tell him. Of course, that didn’t happen. He answered on the third ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Uh, hey it’s Hunter, over at Reed Security.”

  “Yeah. What’s going on?”

  I ran my hand over the back of my neck and braced myself. “Um…Kate’s missing.”

  There was a moment of silence before a low growl emanated through the phone. “What the fuck do you mean Kate’s missing?”

  “She was taken by-”

  “Are you fucking kidding me? Where the fuck is Knight? Put him on the phone.”

  “I can’t,” I said, glancing over at Knight’s prone form. “He’s uh…detained.”

  “He’s about to be detained by my foot up his ass. Put him on the phone right the fuck now.”

  “I had to knock him out,” I admitted. “He went after this senator that’s involved with her kidnapping and he was gonna kill him. I had to knock him out so we could use the fucker to get information.”

  “You mean to tell me that he went after this guy and didn’t get any information?” Cole said incredulously.

  “I don’t think he had what we needed.”

  “Then you should have let him kill the asshole.”

  “Look, this is bigger than you could ever imagine. Something big is going down, and we need more information than just Kate’s location.”

  “How long has she been missing?”

  “She went missing earlier this evening.”

  “I’m heading over there with Alex. When I get there, you and I are gonna have a little talk about keeping me informed on details like my cousin getting kidnapped.”

  He hung up and I tossed the phone on the table with a sigh. This was gonna suck.

  Chapter Eight

  Knight

  “Just breathe, Kate.”

  She squeezed my hand tight, her face a grimace of pain. This wasn’t right. The nurses kept coming in with worried looks on their faces, but none of them were saying a word. I almost pulled the gun at my ankle. Yeah, no guns allowed and all that bullshit. This was still a public place and there was no way I was going in unprotected. The only thing that was stopping me was the terrified expression on Kate’s face. I couldn’t do anything that would get me thrown out of the hospital. I couldn’t leave her alone when she needed me. But I also couldn’t stand by while no one told me anything.

  “Sweetheart, I’m going to get Hunter. I’ll be right back, okay?”

  She nodded as she breathed through another contraction. I rushed out of the room, cursing the stupid anesthesiologist that messed up the epidural. After that debacle, Kate told him she didn’t want the epidural. He had hit a nerve or something in her spine and her whole body went rigid with pain. She screamed for them to take it out, and they did, but now she was suffering unnecessarily. I wasn’t going to lie, when I heard that scream, I wanted the damn thing out too. But to see her like this was too much.

  “Pappy!” I shouted as I neared the waiting room. He immediately stood, his face concerned when he saw me. The nurses shushed me, but I ignored them. They could fuck off.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I need you. I don’t know what the fuck is happening and I need you there. Kate’s in no frame of mind to ask them what’s happening and no one’s telling me jack shit.”

  He didn’t ask anything else, just walked past me and headed for Kate’s room. When I heard her scream down the hallway, I sprinted toward the room and pushed inside. Kate was curled up in pain, holding her stomach and the nurse was trying to calm her.

  “What the fuck did you do?” I shouted at the nurse, rushing over to the other side of Kate’s bed to hold her hand. I brushed the sweaty hair from her face, but I didn’t know what else to do. Hunter was asking questions, trying to find out what was wrong, but all I could do was stare at my wife and pray that she was alright.

  “Something’s wrong,” Kate cried, tears running down her face. “Hudson, this isn’t right.”

  “I know, baby. Hunter’s here. He’ll find out what’s going on.”

  “Just get the fucking doctor right now!” Hunter shouted at the nurse. She looked terrified, and rightly so. If she didn’t do what he said, I wouldn’t hesitate to pull out my gun and find other ways to convince her to move her ass.

  “Shh,” I said, still running my fingers through Kate’s hair. I just needed to calm her down. As much as I wanted to freak out right now, I knew that I couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t help Kate any.

  “Hey, Kate. The nurse went to get the doctor. It looks like the baby’s blood pressure keeps dropping.”

  “Then I need a c-section,” Kate said, breathing around a contraction. “They need to get him out.”

  Her voice was raised slightly in panic. She was starting to really freak out and I didn’t have a clue what to do.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Hunter said, trying his best to calm her. “Just take it easy. You know that the baby will be fine as long as you stay calm.”

  The monitors started beeping like crazy and the nurse rushed into the room to check on the baby’s heartbeat. “The heartbeat’s dropping,” she said, her eyes wide in panic. She had to be new. I’d never seen a nurse that didn’t know how to respond to these situations. They were supposed to be calm in a time of panic.

  “Do something,” I shouted, gripping onto Kate’s hand. I turned back to Kate as Hunter rushed out of the room, along with the nurse. She looked like she was on the verge of passing out. I could tell she was in pain, but this was different. Her eyelids were fluttering and her breathing was erratic.

  “Garrick,” she whispered. I swallowed hard. She was scared. That name always slipped out when she was scared.

  “I’m right here, baby.”

  “Promise me…If something happens…you make sure my son is okay.”

  “Of course, he’ll be okay,” I said in confusion. “Nothing’s going to happen to him.”

  “No, I mean, do whatever you have to so he lives.”

  I just stared at her, not really understanding what she was saying. I wasn’t a doctor. I couldn’t make sure that anything like that happened. Her eyes cleared for a moment and she squeezed my hand.

  “If there’s a choice, you choose him.”

  I jerked back in shock. Was she serious right now? She wanted me to choose my son over her? We could have more kids. If we lost this baby, yes, it would be devastating, but there was only one of her. There was no way I would choose a baby over her. It would never happen. She was my world and she was staying right the fuck beside me for the rest of our lives.

  “Kate-”

  “Promise me,” she pleaded.

  I didn’t know what else to do. She was stressed and looked like she was on the verge of passing out. If she needed this to comfort her, I would give it to her, but there was no way I would follow through on it.

  “Alright,” I choked out. “Just calm down. You’re both going to be fine.”

  The doctor rushed into the room, and I glanced up to yell at him, but then something happened. Kate passed out, the monitors went crazy, and the doctor was shoving me aside. Before I knew it, Kate was being wheeled out of the room and Hunter was holding onto my arm. I
didn’t realize why until I saw the security guards rushing toward me. I was thrashing in Hunter’s arms, trying to run after Kate, but he was holding me down, his arm braced around my neck to hold me back.

  “Kate!” I shouted as the bed was pushed around the corner and she disappeared. “Kate!”

  I struggled with everything I had, finally breaking free from Hunter’s tight hold, and raced down the hallway after her. I lost sight of her. What if I never saw her again? What if those were the last words she spoke to me? I was just about to shove in the door to the operating room when I was tackled to the floor. Over the roaring in my ears, I could hear Hunter telling me to calm down, but how could I do that when my wife was fighting for her life? How could I just sit there calmly and pretend that she was going to be fine?

  I felt the prick of a needle and everything started to fade around me. Hunter’s hold on me grew lighter as I stared at the doors and fought for just a glimpse inside. The door swung open and the last image I saw before I passed out was all the blood on the floor around Kate’s bed.

  My heart was thumping out of control as I thought of that day. I was half awake, but in this drugged state, I couldn’t bring myself fully out of the nightmare I just had. Except, that wasn’t a nightmare. That was reality. I had been lucky that day. Kate had made it through surgery and our son had survived. I never had to make the choice of her life or the baby’s because I was never consulted. I had been drugged so that I wouldn’t rush into the room while they were performing a c-section. Hunter had convinced the hospital staff that I was distressed and they couldn’t kick me out. When I woke up, Kate was lying in bed recovering. I was in a bed next to her, one the staff had put in her room when Hunter convinced them they wouldn’t have any more problems with me, as long as I was with Kate.

  I laid there, trying to wake up, trying to forget the panic that I felt that day, but the drugs were pulling me down again. I didn’t want to think of that day, of almost losing Kate. I couldn’t shake the thoughts either. It was all there in my mind, just lingering like a warning sign. Kate had been saved that day, but why did it feel like that was a sign of things to come? Did that mean that I wouldn’t get Kate back this time?

  I had bargained with the devil that day, telling him to take my pathetic life so she could live. What if the devil was coming back now, only he came to claim her life this time instead of mine?

  Chapter Nine

  Kate

  My arms were killing me and I had to pee. Barret had been nice enough to bring me some water, though he did it only because he could tell I was dehydrated. For him, it was all about keeping me alive. He had a job to do, and that was to keep me alive long enough to fulfill whatever job needed to be done. But I felt like I might be able to reach him. I wasn’t naive. He definitely wouldn’t be swayed easily, but if I appealed to him enough in the right way, he was the only one with enough rational thought to actually save me.

  “This is fucking bullshit,” Adam swore, slamming his phone down on the table. “No one’s fucking answering.” He looked over at me, a scowl darkening his face. He stormed toward me, grabbing me by the jaw and forcing me to look at him. “What’s so fucking special about you, huh? What makes your husband think that he can do whatever the fuck he wants?”

  I didn’t answer. Giving him information would only get me killed. He must have some inkling of who Knight was, but now he was trying to find out the best way to use me against him if the time should come.

  “Knock it off,” Barret said in a low voice. “If you kill her now, you’re definitely not going to get what you want.”

  “Maybe I don’t need to kill her. A few bruises would send the right message to everyone involved.”

  The first backhand took me by surprise, but the second was even worse. My head snapped to the side and tears blurred my vision as I felt the pain radiating through my face. I slowly raised my head, doing my best not to show him fear. He would feed off that and I needed to be strong right now.

  Barret slowly stood and moved over to the liquor cabinet in the corner. “Feel better?” he asked as he poured himself a drink.

  “Not nearly enough.”

  “I say we just kill her,” Tristan said. “He broke the deal. He was supposed to call with further instructions and he’s been silent ever since. I say we kill her, dump the body, and move on.”

  “We can’t just kill her and walk away,” Adam said angrily. “If we walk away, we don’t get paid!”

  “You two need a break. I saw a strip joint up the road. Go take the edge off. I’ll watch this one,” he said, nodding to me.

  “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Tristan said, walking for the door. Adam, however, was more reluctant.

  “You sure you got this? We can’t afford any fuck ups.”

  “She’s tied to a fucking chair. What the hell do you think is going to happen?”

  He nodded slowly and then headed out the door, leaving me alone with Barret, who looked relieved not to have them around anymore. He took a sip of his drink and came to sit down across from me, crossing his leg leisurely over the other leg. I watched as he swirled his drink, assessing me like a puzzle.

  “Can I use the bathroom?”

  “You can.” I sighed in relief. “But it’ll cost you.”

  “What do you want?” I was almost afraid to ask.

  “Information.”

  “I don’t know what I can tell you.”

  “What has your husband dug up on the senator that he needs us to kidnap you in order to get that information back?”

  I shook my head slowly. “I don’t know.”

  “You have to know something.” He leaned forward, a slight gleam in his eye. “Or does your husband not trust you.”

  I raised my chin and looked him dead in the eye. “He trusts me more than anyone in his life. But he also loves me very much, so he doesn’t involve me in anything he does, probably for this very reason.”

  “You’re worth more if you have information to give,” he said with a smirk, taking a slow drink.

  I swallowed hard. He was right. I was useless if I had no information, but then again, that wasn’t why they took me.

  “If it was information you wanted, you wouldn’t be waiting on a phone call. You didn’t bring me here because of what I know. You brought me because you think you can get my husband to do whatever you want if you have me.”

  “Don’t you think he will?”

  Now it was my turn to smirk. “He will do anything to get me back, but not in the way you’re thinking. There won’t be any bargaining or pleading. He’ll find you, and when he does, you’ll need to make sure that you’re not directly in his path to me.”

  He nodded slowly, but he still didn’t seem like he totally believed me.

  “Do you know who my husband is?”

  “I’ve heard of him,” he said dryly.

  “Then you know that he’s ruthless and he’ll do whatever he has to. And that includes taking out anyone that stands in his way. You may think that you’re the smart one, that you’ve got this all figured out, but when he finds out where I am, and he will find out, you won’t see him coming. He moves silently and quickly. He kills without mercy, and you’ll be dead before you even knew he was here. Which I guess is a good thing for you, because at least you won’t see your death coming, but if by chance he takes out them first,” I said, nodding to the door where the other two walked out, “you’ll know what true fear is, and you’ll wish you had sided with me.”

  He huffed out a laugh, but this time I got the feeling that he might actually believe me. “Any woman in your position would say the same thing. That’s because you want to believe that you can be saved.”

  “No, it’s because I know it’s the truth. Listen,” I said seriously, “I’m begging you to listen to me, because you seem like the only smart man out of the group. You should be gone when he gets here. Even then, you won’t be safe. If he finds out that you were involved, he won’t walk away. And
no matter what you think, I’m not saying this out of desperation. I’m saying this to you because I know exactly what he’ll do. I’ve seen him kill many times, and your death will mean absolutely nothing to him.”

  He leaned forward even more so that he was just a breath away from me. “There will come a time when it’s me you’re going to have to trust. You’ll either take it or leave it. If you take it, I might help you.” He stood and downed the rest of his drink. “If I don’t decide to kill you first.”

  He walked away, tossing the glass into the empty fireplace. It shattered, leaving me feeling exactly the same way. I thought I was close to convincing him, but what he just said wasn’t exactly a signal that he was on my side. I’d met his kind before. They could be swayed to do the right thing, but only if something better didn’t come along first. He was waiting to see what the others would do, and if that phone call ever came in. That left everything between now and then up for grabs. I just had to keep trying to convince him that I was the better choice.

  Chapter Ten

  Senator Burke

  I rushed into the meeting room we had left just hours ago. What the fuck had Cortez been thinking? This was getting out of control. Now we had a dead aid and no way to explain it. And when the media got word of a dead senator’s aid, that light would shine bright on Senator Cortez. I knew I shouldn’t have brought him in. This was all a mistake, and now we had to clean up the mess he had made.

  “Where are we?” I asked Brunswick.

  “Timothy, Senator Cortez’s aid, was shot once in the head and then dumped in the river. His phone was missing, but Cortez called it in to me, and asked me to clean it up.”

  “Well, where the fuck is Cortez now?”

  Brunswick swallowed hard. “He said that Knight had threatened to come after him.”

  “And nobody’s seen him since? Did he just stay where he was and wait for a killer to come after him?” I asked incredulously.