GoodKnight: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  My harsh breathing filled the quiet of the closet and I tried to stop it, to slow it down, but it was coming too strong. We had lost too much. I squeezed my head in my hands, trying to hold on to any last shred of sanity, but it was slipping away fast. My phone started ringing, but I couldn’t get it. I couldn’t deal with any more problems. I knew I was the one responsible, but right now, I just couldn’t deal with anything else. It rang twice more before I fumbled with it, shutting my phone off so I could mourn the loss of my friend in peace.

  The door flew open and light burst in, blinding me through the tears that were forming in my eyes. Hunter stood there for just seconds before seeing the pain on my face. He quickly stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.

  “What happened?” he demanded.

  I shook my head. I couldn’t talk right now. This was all too much. My erratic breathing was all that I could hear. I felt Hunter grip my shoulder and I lost it. It was all too much for me. I couldn’t be the leader right now. I was just the guy that lost his best friend. I shook my head rapidly, trying to find the words, but they wouldn’t come.

  Finally, after taking a few deep breaths, I choked out, “Sinner’s gone.”

  “What? Dead?”

  I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. I swiped at my nose and took a deep breath. “One of the charges blew early on the lab. He ran back inside to get the vaccine for Kate. He didn’t come out and the guys couldn’t get to him. The fire spread too quickly.”

  “Are they sure? I mean, this is Sinner. He might have found another way…”

  I shook my head again. “Cazzo called. You know he wouldn’t have called if he wasn’t sure.”

  “Holy shit.”

  “I just never thought…it’s Sinner. I thought we would grow old together, you know, Maggie, Sinner, and I. It’s always been the three of us.” I knew it sounded gay and shit, but that’s the way it was between us. We always got into shit together, and now that was gone.

  I felt Hunter pull me into a hug, one that I didn’t know I needed until now. I wrapped my arms tight around him, fisting his shirt as a sob tore through me. I gripped him tighter, feeling like I was about to collapse and he was all that was holding me up.

  “We’ll get through this, Cap,” he said, his voice cracking. “I know we will.”

  I nodded, swallowing hard as I tried to pull it together. The door swung open and more light flooded the small, dark space. I blinked back the tears, sure I was seeing things when Sinner appeared in front of me with a huge, shit-eating grin on his face.

  “Cap, seriously, after all the shit you’ve given us over the years, I literally walk in on you in the closet with Hunter, wrapped in a passionate embrace.”

  I pulled back and stared at Sinner, sure I was seeing a mirage or something. Then I flung myself at him, giving him the least gay man hug I possibly could. I had thought he was gone, but he was here. I felt him pat my back awkwardly and pulled back, clearing my throat and swiping at my eyes.

  “You’re alive,” I said, my voice cracking slightly

  “Well, I’m not a ghost.”

  “It’s just… Cazzo said you were dead. He said…” I shook my head, unable to believe this was real.

  “Yeah, I pulled a Parker and went through the window.” He grinned and shrugged his shoulder. “What? It’s not like I’m going down in flames. I can’t believe you have so little faith in me.”

  I huffed out a laugh, shaking my head slightly. “Of course you did. Did you bring the vaccine with you?”

  “Cap, seriously, do you think I would risk life and limb and not grab the vaccine on the way out? I mean, I’m pretty sure I have it, but I can’t say for certain. I just dumped all the contents of the fridge into a cooler and booked it. Well, after I blacked out for a few seconds. I kinda got taken out by something falling on my head, but let’s keep that between us. It sounds way cooler if I grabbed it and made a flying leap out the window.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of destroying your heroic tale,” I said dryly.

  “So, we’re cool now? Cuz, I gotta say, I’m touched you would cry over me, but you are the boss of Reed Security. We need you to not look like a pussy.”

  I swiped the last of the tears from my face and took a deep breath, nodding slightly. “Yeah, I’m good.”

  “You’re sure? Because if you need a few more minutes, I can let you hug it out in the closet with Hunter. I’ll stand guard and everything.”

  “Fuck off.”

  I shoved past him and down the hall. I refused to let anyone see me like that again. I shook my head. I was going to have to retire. I was way too fucking attached to these guys to keep going through shit like this.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Knight

  “I’ve got it!”

  My head whipped around and I saw Sinner storming into the quarantined area with a cooler in his hand. He was filthy, covered in soot, and he probably shouldn’t be walking in here, but right now, I didn’t give a fuck. If he got the vaccine, Kate had a chance.

  “You can’t be in here. Who let you back here?” Kate’s doctor asked, rushing over to Sinner.

  “I have the vaccine in here, so back the fuck off.”

  “You got it?” I asked shoving up from my position beside Kate. It was too good to believe. I had spent hours by her side, hoping and praying that she would live. Right now, I was hesitant to believe it was true.

  “Well, I got a bunch of shit. I didn’t have time to sort through all the vials,” he said, motioning to his burnt clothes. “I just barely got out of there, but I grabbed everything I could.”

  He handed the cooler over to the doctor, who took it like he was holding the Holy Grail. “How much did you get?”

  “I don’t know. There was a fridge with all these vials. I have no idea what the right one is.”

  The doctor’s shoulders seemed to deflate. “I’ll get this back to the lab immediately. It’ll take some time to sort through everything.”

  “I picked this up on the way.” Sinner pulled the notebook that Parker and Blake had recovered from the lab a few weeks back. “That’s all the notes from what the lab had created and the trials they conducted. Maybe that will help.”

  The doctor nodded and turned to me. “I’ll get to work on this right away.”

  He took off quickly, leaving me alone with Sinner. “I can’t thank you enough for going back in and risking your life.”

  He shrugged with a slight grin. “It was all in a day’s work. Besides, I know you would do the same for me if it was my wife.” He glanced behind me, his face growing serious. “How’s she doing?”

  “Not good,” I said gruffly. “She’s been out of it since right after Dennick injected her.” I ran my hand across my jaw and sighed. “And you just tried to destroy all evidence of the virus, and I’ve handed over everything to the doctors. The journal is in the hands of doctors and the virus, along with the vaccine, is in their hands.”

  “We’ll find a way to get rid of it again. We’ll make sure that this never happens to anyone else.”

  “I really fucking hope so.” I glanced back at Kate. “No one deserves to die like this.”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Kate

  Coming awake was painful. My throat was dry, my head ached, and breathing was difficult. I didn’t remember what happened. The last thing I could remember was walking out to see Agent Dennick at the house. Everything else was a blur. I didn’t understand what was going on, but the one thing I knew for certain was that Hudson was here. I could feel his powerful hand in mine. He wasn’t gone, and as much as I wanted to know why, I didn’t really care. I was just happy that he was here with me.

  “Kate, come back to me.”

  I felt his lips press against my hand and smiled to myself. I struggled to open my eyes. They felt crusty and gross. My teeth felt the same and I was pretty sure that I could taste blood in my mouth.

  “Mmm-” I tried to talk, but it was like my mouth was
glued shut. My eyes shifted back and forth under my eyelids as I tried to open them, but nothing happened.

  “Kate,” Hudson croaked out. “Are you awake? Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”

  I did as he asked, surprised at how weak I felt. I wanted to see him. I wanted to know for certain that this wasn’t just some dream.

  “I need a doctor!”

  There was a flurry of activity. Too many people were talking and none of it made sense to me. My whole body was just drained. Exhaustion rolled through me, making me just want to go back to sleep. I started to slip back into the darkness, but Hudson was beside me, begging me to wake up.

  “Mmm,” I tried again.

  “Nurse, get her some water.”

  I felt something wet on my eyelids, the warm water soothing the ache on my face. The crusty feeling on my eyes disappeared and when I tried to open my eyes this time, light appeared, blinding me momentarily. Then Hudson was in front of me. Tears were in his eyes, and it suddenly hit me that something really terrible had happened.

  The nurse reappeared with a cup and straw, guiding it to my mouth. I coughed at first, the liquid too much for my raw throat, but after a few sips, the cool liquid eased the ache. I rested my head back on the pillows and closed my eyes. The effort was almost too much for me. I felt Hudson brush his fingers across my cheek and opened my eyes again to look at him.

  “Hey,” he whispered. “I thought I’d lost you.”

  “What happened?” I asked, unsure of anything right now.

  “It doesn’t matter. I just want you to rest and get better.”

  I nodded in agreement. A tired weight was pushing down on me. The only thing I cared about right now was that I had him beside me. Everything else could wait.

  When I woke up the next time, I felt a hundred times better. I was still tired, but my body didn’t ache so much. Hudson was still beside me, his head resting on the bed beside me. He looked exhausted and the amount of hair on his face told me that I had been here longer than I initially thought. I brushed my fingers through his hair and he popped up, his eyes searching my face.

  “You’re awake.”

  I nodded with a smile. “How long have I been asleep?”

  “A week.”

  He got up and sat on my bed, pulling me into his arms gently. I could feel his breathing hitch, and then he was pulling me tighter into his arms.

  “What happened?”

  “Dennick came to us. He said he needed to talk to you to close out the file on your kidnapping. They wanted to take you and I fought back. Chaos broke out and then Dennick had you. He injected you with the virus.”

  I pulled back sharply, surprised by what he said. “He injected me?”

  “I’m so fucking sorry I failed you again.”

  “What are you talking about? You didn’t fail me.”

  His hand cupped the back of my head and his thumb brushed against my cheek. “I didn’t protect you. It’s like I keep fucking it all up.”

  “Hudson, stop talking like this. You didn’t do this. There was an insane man that had his own agenda. You didn’t allow him to inject me. It just happened. That’s not your fault.”

  But I could see that the guilt was too strong inside him. He wasn’t going to let this go. We were right back to where we started when he found out I was alive. And I had a feeling that this time would be the same as the last. He was going to leave me, and there was nothing I could say or do to stop him.

  I decided to change things up and focus on the positive. If I thought about him leaving me again, I would just break down, and I couldn’t afford that today.

  “So, how is it that I survived?”

  “Sinner got the vaccination for you.” He sighed heavily, glancing away from me. “The doctors had to work for days to figure out which vial was the right one.”

  “Days, but you told me the virus killed within days. How is it that I’m still alive?”

  He shrugged slightly. “The doctors don’t know. None of the rest of us got sick. I’ve been right here beside you the entire time, but I didn’t get it. They said they would have to study your bloodwork and run it against the virus and other patients.”

  “But no one else got sick?”

  He shook his head. “They don’t understand it. Maybe we’ll never know.”

  “But they can reproduce it now. Hudson, you have to destroy the samples. If this gets out, it could start all over again.”

  “No. What if you get worse? I can’t take that chance.”

  “You can’t take the chance that this could happen to someone else. There are bioterrorists all across the world. If they got their hands on this virus, millions of people would die. I can’t have that on my head.”

  “Kate, you’re asking me to destroy samples of what was inside you. You’re asking me to risk your life. What if the virus is sitting dormant inside you and-”

  I pressed my hand to his cheek. I could see the fear in his eyes, and I knew that I was asking the impossible from him. But this was what had to be done.

  “I know you’re worried. I’m a doctor. I understand the ins and outs of how this goes. If I do get sick again, there are plenty of doctors that can help me. But we can’t leave these samples for other people to play with. It won’t stop right here with these doctors. The CDC will get their hands on the samples, and I can bet that they’re already on their way to collect them. If that happens, the virus is out there, and all it would take is one breach in protocols. Please,” I begged. “You have to do this for me. Get rid of it.”

  He shook his head slightly, but stood from his chair and stormed out of the room. I was losing him again. I could feel him slipping away, even though he stood here ready to protect me.

  I woke to a steady beat under my cheek. I peeled my eyes open to see Hudson in bed beside me. He was sleeping, which I knew he hadn’t been doing a lot of lately. His dark eyelashes rested against his cheeks and his breathing was deep and even. He took on so much, leaving him drained and feeling like shit. I wished that things could be different, that he could see all the good he did. There was a time when I questioned whether or not he was a good man. Those years had long since passed. The man I knew now was the same person that could callously take a life, but he would also give his life for anyone he called a friend. And he was about to walk away from all of us.

  He stirred and his eyes opened, the dark orbs boring into me, reading all my thoughts. His hand slid up my back, settling at the base of my neck. He pulled me into him and kissed me hard, pouring all his love into that one moment. He had always been like this. He was either all in or all out. There was no in-between.

  He pulled back, his eyes studying me intently. “How are you feeling?”

  “Better.”

  “How much better?”

  “I don’t feel as bad as yesterday. I’m just achy and I feel dirty. Want to help me get clean?” I asked suggestively. But he didn’t take the bait.

  The door swung open and Sebastian walked in, a huge grin on his face. “It’s good to see you awake.”

  “Was I boring you with my sleeping?”

  He smirked at me, but based on the low growl that was coming from beside me, Hudson didn’t find this funny.

  “When are you breaking me out of here?”

  “Not yet,” Hudson said instantly. “You’re not well enough to go home.”

  “I’m just tired and achy. I can rest at home.”

  “I don’t want you to rest at home. I want you by doctors in case anything happens.”

  “You mean, like in case I fall asleep?”

  He pushed off the bed, upset at my flip attitude, but what was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to lay in bed and play the victim? I had already been there for weeks, and I wasn’t about to go back to that.

  “Kate, this is serious. You have no idea what the repercussions of this virus are yet. Nobody knows. We still don’t know why the rest of us weren’t infected or why you didn’t die like the subjects in t
he trial. If you leave and something happens-”

  “Then I’ll go to the doctor. You forget that I’m a doctor and I know what’s normal and what’s not. I’m perfectly capable of knowing my own limits.”

  “Too fucking bad. I’m your husband-”

  “Oh, now you’re my husband?” I shot back. “A week ago you were ready to walk out on me, but now you’re my husband?”

  He stalked over to me, bending low to get in my face. “Yes, right now I’m still your fucking husband and I say that you’re not leaving here until I’m sure you’re better. I don’t give a fuck what I said a week ago. Right now, I’m still here and I’ll make damn sure that you get the care you need before you leave this place. Is that clear?”

  He was so close that I could practically feel his heart beating out of his chest. I wanted to deny him. I wanted to tell him to fuck off, but the way he was talking, I still had a chance to convince him to stay. Maybe he wasn’t planning on leaving anymore. After all, I had almost died, again. Maybe that changed things for him. If I pushed on this, would that push him away? I couldn’t be sure, but my instincts were telling me to give in right now.

  He gripped the back of my neck, pulling me right up against his mouth. “Are we clear?” he murmured around soft kisses.

  I nodded. I couldn’t speak around the dryness in my throat. All I knew was that he was still here and I would do anything I could to hold onto him.

  “Good.”

  He kissed me again, his tongue slipping inside my mouth. I ran my fingers up into his hair and pulled him closer, a slight moan escaping my lips. The clearing of a throat had me pulling back, embarrassed that I had forgotten that Sebastian was in the room with us.