Protecting What's Mine: A Security Romance Collection

by Apryl Baker

  “Thank you. I love you.” I’m exhausted.

  “I love you too.” He leans over and kisses me.

  “I’m going to rest.”

  “I’ll be right here. I think the doctor said you would be able to leave later today.”

  “Good. Then we can find that bitch and I can show her that no one fucks with Jesse McCoy.” I lay back in bed as Aedan turns out the lights. I let sleep take me. It’s been a long night.

  ***

  Aedan

  The night turns into morning, and the only sounds in the room are Jesse’s soft breaths. The nurses came in and removed her from the machines. She no longer needed them. I’ve slept for short amounts of time here and there. I wake up thinking this nightmare will never end, but when I look at Jesse, I’m thankful everyone is okay or will be in a few days. If anything had happened to them, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. It’s my fault. I let my guard down. It’s my fault Chet was able to get to them. None of this should have happened.

  “I can hear you thinking over there,” Jesse mumbles, even though her eyes are closed.

  “I’m just going over everything. It’s not making sense.”

  “It’s not going to if you keep blaming yourself.

  How does she know?

  “I…um…”

  “Aedan, you’re not that hard to figure out. I know until you personally take care of Chet and Chantelle, you’ll continue to blame yourself. And guess what? It’s not your fault. You can’t control what crazy people do.”

  “But I was trained to predict their actions. That’s what I’m paid to do.”

  “If humans were able to predict the actions of others every single time, then we wouldn’t have criminals in the first place, Aedan. It takes time. And when you finally get them, it will be worth it.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  She smiles. “I know I am.”

  I kiss her forehead. “Do you need anything?”

  “Help me to the bathroom?”

  “Of course.”

  She pushes the blankets and moves her legs to the side of the bed. I don’t wait for to her to stand. I pick her up.

  “Aedan! I can walk. I just didn’t want to walk alone.”

  “This way I know you’ll be okay.”

  “Fine.”

  The bathroom door is open and once we enter, the light comes on. I stand her beside the toilet and turn my back.

  “Seriously? I’ll be fine to use the bathroom on my own. I’ll let you know when I’m finished.”

  “I can stand right here.”

  “You’re being crazy. Please.”

  “Okay. I’ll be right outside of the door.”

  I walk out and close the door behind me to give her some privacy, which I don’t know why she would need it. It’s not like she doesn’t walk in the bathroom when I’m using it.

  A few moments go by and I hear a knock on the door. “I’m ready to come out now.”

  I open the door, and Jesse won’t let me pick her back up. She walks back to the bed with me closely behind.

  “Do you need anything else?”

  “Not that I can think of.”

  “I’m going to find Dr. Monroe and see if I can get you out of here.”

  “Okay, I love you.”

  “Love you too, gorgeous.”

  I walk out of the room, looking for the doctor as I walk down the hallway. There’s no one at the nurses’ station when I approach. I keep walking, hoping to run into someone who can help me. I make it halfway to Pearse’s room before I see Reese.

  “Hey, how’s your dad?”

  “He’s improving. Dr. Monroe is with him now.”

  “Good, I was looking for him. Oh, I have a question for you. Since you and Tierney were cleared to leave, do you want to stay here or go back to Denver?”

  “I need to go back, and I think Tier does too. I’ll let you know.”

  “Okay, because Laney is flying in tomorrow morning and you guys can return home then.”

  “That works for me and I’m sure the same for him too.”

  “Thanks. Jesse is awake if you want to see her.”

  “Fantastic. That is where I was headed. Talk to you in a bit.” She gives me a hug and walks in the direction of Jesse’s room.

  I continue down to Pearse’s room and before I enter, I knock on the door. As I enter the room, I see Dr. Monroe changing the dressing on his chest.

  “Mr. Hughes.”

  “How’s he doing, Doc?”

  “Better than expected. He’s going to be here at least a couple days. I’ll know for sure tomorrow.”

  “Okay. I was wondering if I could get Jesse out of here.”

  “I’ll be down to check her next.”

  I nod my head. “All right.” I sit down in a chair close to the bed and watch the doctor check over Pearse and cover his wound back up.

  “Mr. McCoy, you’re going to have to take it easy.”

  “Rubbish. Nothing will interfere with my golf game,” he bluntly states.

  “You need to give your shoulder some time to heal. I don’t want to have to make a house call because you couldn’t rest for a few weeks.”

  “I’ll rest when I’m dead.”

  “Spoken like a typical Irishman.”

  “Damn straight.”

  “Aedan, Jesse might want to consider getting a nurse or an aide to keep in him line,” Dr. Monroe points out.

  “I’ll let her know you suggested it.” I grin.

  “I’m sitting right here, gentlemen,” he huffs.

  “You need to listen, Pearse,” I order, chuckling.

  I know he isn’t going to listen, and this is the trait he passed along to his daughter. Both of them drive me insane.

  “Fine. I’ll do whatever it takes to get me out of this place and back home,” Pearse grumbles.

  “Good. I figured you’d eventually see it my way.” Dr. Monroe smiles, pats Pearse’s leg, and walks out of the room.

  “Tell me again why we use that asshole to care for us?” Pearse says as he tries to adjust in the bed several minutes after the doctor leaves the room.

  “Because he’s one of the best in the country.”

  “True. Were you able to keep this out of the local news?” he asks, worry filling his face.

  “Yes, but your ranch house is a total loss.”

  “Son of a bitch. I’ll have the house rebuilt. That’s not an issue. It just won’t be the same without Mary’s touches.”

  “I know, but I’m sure your children will help you make it a home again.”

  “You are correct. How is Jesse doing?”

  “She’s good. I assume she will be down here as soon as she’s released.”

  “Good. I need to talk to her.”

  “Don’t let her be too hard on you.”

  “I won’t…everything I did was to protect my children.”

  “I know, Dad,” Jesse says from the threshold of the room, wearing the clothes I bought at a store outside of town.

  “I’ll let you two talk in private.” I get up from the chair. “Pearse, we will talk later.” I turn to walk of room, and I stop beside Jesse to kiss her cheek before I leave the room.

  The hallway is empty when I step out, and I walk to the room Tierney and Reese should be in. I need to get all three of them out of here. We need to decompress, eat, and buy clothing and personal items. Sam worked with Craig getting their IDs, credit and debit cards replaced and they will arrive this week. Since Sam and I weren’t in the house at the time, the only thing we lost was our clothing. Our computers and files were in the vehicle with us since we were discussing everything with Trent on the way to the airport.

  The door to the room is open when I enter, and the two of them are chilling watching Maury.

  “You guys watch that stuff?”

  “Sure, it’s someone else’s drama, not ours.” Tierney laughs.

  “Did Reese ask you about flying home tomorrow?”

  �
�Yes, that’s fine.”

  “Okay. I’ll let the pilot know that you’re flying back with him tomorrow.”

  “Perfect.”

  “When Jesse’s done talking to your dad, we will go out and get something to eat, along with replacing your phones and clothes.”

  They both nod. “Oh, thanks for getting these. You have good taste,” Reese says with a smirk, pointing at her ‘I heart Twin Falls’ t-shirt. “But seriously, thank you. It was nice to take a shower and put on fresh clothes.”

  “I’m rocking my own, so I understand.” I pull up my sweatshirt and show her my blue shirt that is identical to her white one.

  “We all match. How cute are we?” Tierney sasses.

  “You’re a dork, Tier.”

  “Nerd.”

  I’m glad to see things are somewhat normal, and I’m getting out of here before they involve me in their craziness. “We’ll come and get you on our way out.”

  “Laters.” Reese waves and she jumps on Tierney and starts to tickle him.

  I pull out my phone and call Nadia. She is a wiz at finding hotels and places to go. I depend on her when I need something. I give her a list of what I need to do, and she gets to it. Once I hang up, I look for Sam to see if there’s any update on the search for Chet. When I get my hands on him, I won’t have to worry about him escaping again. Coming after Jesse to get to McCoy was the worst mistake he’s ever made. He will regret ever knowing her if it’s the last thing I do.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Aedan

  As Jesse rests in our hotel room, I wait in an adjacent room for Sam to arrive with Laney. Jesse needs support right now, girl support, since Reese and Tierney went back to Denver. She knows I’ll be there for her always, but I know I’m not always the person she will need. Once they arrive, Sam and I will go over everything that has happened in the past twenty-four hours.

  This timeline started over seven years ago and it needs to come to a crashing halt before Chantelle accomplishes what she has set out to do. I wrote down what Chet had mentioned to Jesse. He was arrogant when he revealed that he was the one who was behind the recent attacks, but he didn’t confess to the shooting at the party. I wonder why he didn’t mention it. Maybe because it didn’t go as planned?

  There’s a knock at the door and I place my hand on my gun before getting up to check the peephole.

  “Come in. Laney, she’s asleep in the other room. You can get there through here,” I say as I point to the door on the wall.

  She gives me a hug. “Thank you for keeping my family safe,” she says with tears in her eyes, and she walks into the other room.

  “She’s been a mess since I picked her up from the airport, and she almost didn’t let Reese and Tierney on the plane. Lyndsay had to make sure they would be safe.”

  “I can’t imagine. She’s probably thinking it could have been her in the house too.”

  “Yes, she said that. And she feels guilty.”

  “She shouldn’t because she didn’t know that Chet was going to be here.”

  “True. Any news from the divers?”

  “They got the car out and there wasn’t a body in it. However, it was a rental car for a Chris Boston.”

  “Chet’s father?”

  “Yes.” I pull out a copy of the driver’s license picture the rental car company obtained when Chet rented the car. “It’s Chris’s information with Chet’s photo.”

  “Has he been using his father’s identity this whole time?”

  “I’m not sure. I’m waiting on Craig to call me back since he can run reports back faster than I can on my phone.”

  “If he has been, that would explain why we couldn’t find him. None of our extended reports included his father’s name, because he came back clean when we first started looking for Chet.”

  “I wonder if we should look for Chantelle under her mom’s name. She could be using the same tactic.”

  “Let me text Craig that.” I pull out my phone and send him a quick message. He never replies.

  “Since Chet didn’t kill McCoy or Jesse, I wonder if Chantelle will be the one who tries next?”

  “Possible. This time, we will be ready for her.”

  “If she is smart, she won’t try again.”

  “Right, but I don’t think she is. She’s out for vengeance, but the reasoning behind it is absurd. Pearse gave her a decent amount of money in the divorce because of the pre-nup, plus the condo, but I’m guess she didn’t see that as fair. It’s more than fair, and she won’t stop until she gets what she wants…or she’s dead.”

  “Do you think she will go that far?”

  “Yes, because she’s already killed at least one person to get this far. What’s a few more on her hands? She has nothing to lose at this point except her own life.”

  “True.”

  “She knows we won’t take her to the police since we handle everything in-house.”

  “I think she knows too much about how we handle things, and now is the time we implement changes. We will catch her faster if she’s behind the game instead of being on an even playing field.”

  “You might be on to something.” I pull out my legal pad from the bottom of my notes. “Let’s brainstorm everything she knows about and things we don’t think she knows and go from there. This might be a long morning. I hope you’re ready?”

  “Yes. Anything to catch this loon.”

  ***

  Jesse

  I feel someone watching me sleep and I open my eyes to see who is sitting beside me. Relief rushes through my exhausted body when I see Laney’s tear stained face. I close my eyes to fall back asleep, but my body is telling me it’s time to get up. I push myself up and turn in the bed, so I can put my back against the headboard.

  “Sorry if I woke you up,” Laney chokes through sniffles.

  “You’re fine. It was time for me to get up anyway. I need to check in on Dad.”

  “Sam called the hospital on our way here and he’s doing well—giving the nurses a hard time.”

  “Sounds like my dad. I hope we can get him home soon.”

  “Tomorrow will be the earliest he can leave, I think.”

  “Good. Sam with Aedan?”

  “Yes, they were working on something for the company when I checked on them earlier.”

  “I hope they are ready for a break, because I’m hungry.”

  “Me too.”

  “Let me freshen up and we can see if they are, and if not, you and I can hit the restaurant downstairs.”

  “Perfect,” she says as she walks over to the vanity and grabs a washcloth to clean her face.

  My body is tired, but my mind is racing with anger and rage. I’ve never wanted to hurt anyone in my life, but if I get my hands on Chet Boston, I’ll kill him with my bare hands. How someone who was supposed to love and cherish you until you both die could try to kill you and your family is beyond me. I’m at a loss to see it from his point of view.

  “Are you going to get up or did you change your mind?”

  “Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts,” I admit as I push myself off the bed.

  A shower sounds good, but I’ll take one when I get back to the room. I brush my hair and fix what little makeup I have on, then dig through the bags of new clothes and shoes for a pair of boots and a winter coat. The fire destroyed everything. Everything that my dad had there, even all my mother’s memories. Chet and Chantelle took the physical objects we had left from my mom’s time with us, but they will never take away the memories we have in our hearts. Chantelle isn’t an ounce of the woman my mother was, and she never will be.

  I pull the boots up to my knees and grab the coat in case we go out. “I’m ready.” I don’t have a purse, ID, credit cards, bank cards…nothing except the clothes Aedan bought me yesterday.

  “Me too.”

  We walk over to the other room and the guys are so engrossed in their work that they don’t even hear us enter the room.

  “So if we overrid
e the use of access badges, then they can only use thumbprints.”

  “Yes. Monday, only floors two through forty can be accessed with a thumb scan and badge scan. The remaining floors and Craig’s department will only be accessed by thumb scan.”

  “No one should have a problem with that.”

  “I agree.”

  “Sounds good,” I chime in and both guys turn around to look at me.

  “Sorry, Jesse, Laney, we didn’t hear you come in.”

  “You’re fine. I was wondering if you were hungry. We’re starving.”

  “We can eat. Want to go downstairs or get out of here for a bit?”

  “Can we go out and then see my dad?”

  “Yes, that sounds good.”

  ***

  We pull up to a building similar to Dr. Monroe’s office in Denver. He’s a private doctor and his patients are even more private, and this is the way the public and the police stay out of our business.

  I’ve learned a lot about more Aedan’s job in the past few days. More than I care to know, but I need to know. I don’t want to play God, but Chet and Chantelle have tried to kill my family and me on more than one occasion. That tells me they have zero respect for me and I have none for them, and at this point, they can both die as far as I’m concerned. They need to die.

  The past few months have changed me. They’ve made me grow up, and in this business, when someone’s messing with your family, you need to be prepared to take action and fight back. This is me fighting back. This is who they’ve made me become.

  “Ready, love?” Aedan asks after he opens my door.

  “Yes. Thank you.” I take his hand and he helps me from the car. He grabs the bag we bought yesterday with new clothes, toiletries, and everything else my dad needs.