by Kaylea Cross
Rhys had kept that same vigil ever since Ben had come out of surgery the other night. Because he couldn’t leave his brother’s side. Wouldn’t.
“How’s Sam?” he asked, because he needed to think about something else before he lost it. They’d had to force her to leave the hospital earlier, to go back to the safehouse and get some rest.
Between the shock of it all, then interviews by the Feds and cops about what had happened, and worrying herself sick over Ben, she’d been ready to drop. Rhys had sworn to her he wouldn’t leave Ben’s side, and that’s the only reason she’d finally agreed to leave to have a shower and get some sleep.
“Distraught,” Nev answered. “But we made the right call in making her go to the safehouse with the others. She’s got Christa and Emily there to take care of her, and Dec and Rayne are on guard, just in case. She was still in shock and needed to sleep.” She stroked the back of his hair. “And so do you.”
He shook his head. “I’m fine.”
He’d sat in the waiting room with his arm around Sam the entire time Ben was in surgery. She’d been checked, treated for mild hypothermia, then released, and gone straight to the waiting room, refusing to budge until she saw Ben. Luke had stood guard near the hospital entrance, watching for any sign of a threat in case some of Hanes’s team were still out there.
“Where’s Luke?” he asked.
“More meetings with Feds and Agency people.”
He grunted. The cops had arrested a guy trying to break into Luke and Emily’s house. There’d been a brief shootout and the perp was dead. One of Hanes’s men, going after the letter and key Sam had received. But at least the last threat to them all was gone.
He could feel Nev’s gaze on him, but he wasn’t budging on this. When he’d suffered his traumatic brain injury, Ben hadn’t left his side. Ever.
Little punk had stayed next to him, talking to him, riding his ass, coaxing and pleading and whatever else he’d said during those long days and nights before Rhys had regained consciousness. When Rhys had finally opened his swollen eyes, Ben’s face was the first thing he’d seen.
Rhys could do no less for his twin now.
He cleared his throat, removing the lump sitting there. “How’re Mom and Dad?” They’d flown in first thing the morning after the surgery and sat with Ben for a bit after Sam had seen him, one at a time, while Rhys stood just outside the door.
“Worried sick. I finally managed to convince your dad to take your mom to the hotel about ten minutes ago. I promised I’d call them the moment I got an update.”
“That’s good.” He linked a hand with hers, loving her more than ever. The only thing that had stopped him from puking his guts out from raw fear when they’d whisked Ben into the operating room the other night was that Nev had been part of the trauma team.
He’d never be able to repay her for what she’d done. Or explain what she meant to him.
“I’ll stay with him,” Nev murmured, her voice soft, soothing. “He won’t be alone.”
“I’m not leaving.” He set his jaw, his emotions all jumbled up as he stared at his brother’s pale face. He thought about the smart-mouthed punk with the chip on his shoulder who’d been such a pain in the ass over the years—and also Rhys’s best friend.
He swallowed, rubbed his fingers over his eyes as they began to sting. Imagining a life without his twin was unthinkable.
Nev stopped stroking his hair and got up, instinctively sensing his struggle and need for space. He hated coming unglued, but especially in front of anyone, and he was teetering on the verge of his control right now.
“Can’t leave him,” he rasped out, hoping she would understand. He wasn’t pushing her away so much as he was desperately struggling to hold onto the last of his control.
She carefully eased a hip onto the edge of Ben’s bed, watching him for a long moment. “If I go get you something, will you eat it at least?”
He dipped his head. “All right.”
She bent forward, putting her hand on his cheek as she leaned in to kiss him. “I love you and I’m here for you. Just don’t forget that,” she murmured, then got up to leave.
Rhys caught her wrist as she stepped past him, waited for her to look down at him before speaking. “I love you too,” he said.
It seemed like a totally inadequate thing to say. She was his wife, the mother of his unborn child, and she’d helped save both him and Ben. He owed her far more than he could ever give in return.
Her smile was understanding, a little sad. “I know. I love him too. I just hate seeing you hurt.”
Rhys didn’t answer, just squeezed her hand in acknowledgment.
“Just talk to him. There’s a chance he might be able to hear you,” she murmured.
When the door slid shut behind her, leaving him alone, his grip on his control slipped another notch. He leaned forward in the chair and reached for Ben’s limp hand, gripping it tight as he pulled in deep, slow breaths that became increasingly shaky.
He never cried, but he’d lost it in front of Ben last year when Nev had undergone emergency surgery to repair her severed artery and nerve in her arm. If he lost it now, no one would know. But shit it was hard, that ingrained need to keep everything locked down still as strong as ever.
Ben’s pulse was steady on the monitor, his chest rising and falling with each breath. Rhys just wanted him to wake up. For Ben to open his eyes and say something irritating.
Holding his brother’s hand, Rhys forced aside his discomfort and started talking. Anything he could think of that might make Ben fight harder.
“Sam’s coming back soon,” he told him. “We made her leave so she could get some sleep, but I know she’ll be back here within a few hours. She’s worried sick about you, punk. We all are.”
He drew in a slow breath, feeling stupid at first for babbling, but soon he couldn’t stop. “I can’t wait to see you with the baby. You’ll have to show me the ropes. And Mom and Dad are here too. They’re beside themselves.”
He paused, thinking of something else to say, and settled on a memory that stuck out. “Remember that Corvette we stole from the rich neighborhood that day? I couldn’t figure out how to shift it into second and drove it straight into a fence.”
He smiled, a bittersweet pang hitting him as he remembered it. “You hauled me out through the passenger door and helped me over the fence before the owner could catch us. Or when we broke into that Italian joint because it smelled so damn good and we hadn’t eaten in over a day?”
Ben didn’t move. Didn’t react in any way, only the sound of the beeping filling the silence.
Rhys shook his head, feeling the grip on his control beginning to loosen. “We’ve always been there for each other. You can’t leave me now,” he finished in a ragged voice.
By the time Nev returned a while later with a tray of food for him, his throat was sore from holding back the tears gathering there. Again, she offered to stay, but he refused.
“You should go to the rental house and sleep for a while. Luke’ll take you. I don’t want you wearing yourself out.” They were right on the cusp of the second trimester, but he still worried about her and the baby.
She sighed but thankfully didn’t argue. “Then you get some sleep too. I’ll call you in a while.” She kissed him and left.
The fatigue weighed on him as he sat there in the quiet room. After another nurse came in to adjust something in Ben’s line, exhaustion hit Rhys hard. He wound his fingers around Ben’s hand, afraid to cut that connection between them. Afraid that Ben would let go and slip away if he did.
“You gotta fight harder, punk,” Rhys told him, his voice rough. “You’re gonna be an uncle in a few months. You… You can’t make me do this on my own.” His voice cracked. He squeezed his eyes shut, clenching his jaw as the grief pummeled him.
Through his struggle to battle the tears, the pattern of the beeping in the room changed. Rhys opened his eyes, his gaze shooting to the monitor showing Ben�
�s vitals. His brother’s pulse was picking up.
He reached for the call button to summon the nurse, then froze at the slight pressure around his fingers. His eyes shot to Ben’s hand, then up to his brother’s face. Ben’s eyelids were flickering.
Rhys sucked in a breath and squeezed Ben’s hand harder. Oh, Christ, please… “Ben. Can you hear me?”
A second later, Ben’s fingers tightened weakly. Rhys exhaled and shut his eyes, tears welling up. He blinked and focused on his brother’s face, his chest about to explode. “Fuck, yes. Come on back, Ben.”
Ben’s eyelids fluttered again. Cracked open a fraction, those pale green eyes focusing blearily on Rhys. He frowned. His lips moved.
“What’s that?” Rhys leaned down close to Ben’s lips.
“Look…like…shit,” Ben whispered.
Rhys barked out a startled laugh, but it blew apart the door holding his emotions in check. He dissolved into tears, unable to fight them a second longer. He covered his face with one hand, his shoulders shaking.
A long-suffering sigh reached him, then there was a weak tug on his hand. “Hard ass.” Another tug, this one a little stronger.
Rhys leaned over his brother, shoving his wet face into the side of Ben’s neck while his chest split apart and the tears fought free.
Ben reached up to pat Rhys’s back weakly. “There ya go,” he rasped out weakly.
It poured out of him. Relief. Gratitude. Fear. Knowing how close he’d come to losing his other half. “You s-son of a bitch,” he gasped out when he could finally breathe again. “You al-almost died on me.”
“Did I? Sorry.” Another weak pat on the back.
Rhys sat up and scrubbed at his face, sucking in a steadying breath. Shit.
“Where’s Sam?” Ben rasped out.
He dragged his shoulder across his eye, mopping up the tears with his T-shirt. “We sent her to get some sleep. I’ll call her right now.” He dug out his phone, punched in Sam’s number, but stopped when Ben put a hand on his.
His brother’s eyes were hazy with a combination of pain and meds. “Thanks for staying.”
Aww, shit. “I’ll always be here for you,” he vowed, and stood up to call Sam.
****
Everything hurt. Even his hair. But as much as the pain sucked, it meant he was alive, so it was worth it when Sam finally came through the door of his hospital room.
Seeing him, her big brown eyes immediately flooded with tears. She let out a sob and flew at him as Rhys finally stood and relinquished his post.
Ben closed his eyes as her arms wound around his neck. He reached up one hand, wincing as the motion pulled at the incisions in his chest and side, and stroked her back. She buried her face in his neck, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs, the scent of her shampoo filling his nose.
“Hey,” he murmured, his own throat tightening. “I’m okay, sweet thing.”
She only cried harder, clinging to him. He kept holding her as best he could, vaguely aware of his twin silently slipping from the room to give them privacy.
Everything about this was surreal. He’d thought for sure he was a goner during the boat ride from the fort. Didn’t remember anything after going under that last time. But Nev and the rest of the trauma team had saved him.
And Ben had never been so grateful to be alive.
Sam finally calmed enough to lift her head. She wiped distractedly at her face, her tear-drenched eyes locked on him. “Oh, God, I’m so g-glad you’re back,” she whispered, gently stroking the side of his face with her free hand. “Are you in a lot of pain?”
“Not too bad. The nurses upped my meds before you got here, so it’s better.” But he’d bear any amount of pain to stay with her.
She blew out a breath and sat in the chair Rhys had vacated, looking exhausted. “Did Rhys tell you what happened?”
“Yeah.” Hanes was dead, the fucker, along with most of his crew. The cops had shot one guy trying to break into Luke’s place, and the only one of Hanes’s men to survive had been the one Christa had taken down. The Feds were doing their thing with him now. “He said Christa took one guy out with a branch for a bat, and then hurled a rock into his face.” It was just so awesome.
“Wish I’d been able to do that.” She huffed out a breath. “I panicked when Hanes grabbed me.”
“Hey.” He reached for her hand, squeezed it. “You survived. You knew jumping out of that helo was the only way to save yourself, and you did it.” He’d aged fifty years in those few seconds, watching her plummet into the water.
She shook her head. “I should never have brought that shit with me here. I should’ve left it at home or called someone to—”
“No one could’ve known what would happen. Not even you, as smart as you are.” And she was brilliant.
Her eyes were haunted. “I’m so sorry this happened.”
Ben shook his head, refusing to let her blame herself for any of this. “It’s not your fault. Come here.” He held out an arm gingerly.
She leaned back down and nestled her face into his neck again, her fingers running through his hair. “I love you so much. And I’m so glad you’re still here.”
“Love you too. And I’m not going anywhere.” He was looking at a slow and potentially long recovery, but that was okay compared to the alternative. He had Sam, Rhys and the rest of his family to help him through it.
“Your parents are downstairs, by the way. They’re dying to come up, but these ICU nurses are savage about enforcing the rules.”
“In a bit. Just want you right now.”
She kissed his cheek. “You’ve got me for always.”
Ben closed his eyes, savoring the feel of her tucked in close to him. He’d needed a Christmas miracle, and somehow, he’d gotten one.
Chapter Sixteen
“Oh, it’s good to be home again.”
Luke glanced at Emily as he shut and locked the back door behind them. “Sure is.”
It was December twenty-third. Four days since the night Hanes took Sam and Bryn. Luke hadn’t let anyone come back here until the cops, Feds and the CIA could all confirm the threat was truly over, and not just because they’d recovered Hanes’s body from the harbor the morning after the attack on the fort.
Dealing with all the fallout in between had been exhausting. Interviews and meetings. Then more interviews and meetings. They’d all been questioned separately, and Luke had gone out to Fort Sumter with the investigators to explain exactly what had happened. Now it was all done, and they could all try to get back to some semblance of normal.
He and Rayne had gone over every inch of the house earlier, checking for anything suspicious, but everything was as they’d left it. Hanes’s guys hadn’t made it into the house. Now he and the others were all dead, except for one, and that lone survivor had spilled everything during interrogation.
It was late, but at least now everyone was finally back under their roof again, except for Ben, who was staying in the hospital for another day or two, and Sam, who refused to leave without him.
He released the handle of Em’s suitcase and put a hand on her lower back to nudge her toward the stairs. “Go on up and take a bath. I’ll be up in a few minutes.”
She glanced at him, the shadows beneath her eyes more prominent than ever. These last few days had added way too much stress to all of them, and he was sorry for it.
Thankfully Ben had pulled through, but it had been way too goddamn close. Luke was sick to death of the people he loved being in danger. And worse, this had happened in his city, on his watch.
“All right,” she said, and moved past him to start up the curving stairs.
Luke strode straight to his study and slid the door shut. The note, key and flash drive were still on his desk. He’d sent all the intel to Jamie, his former boss and the only person he trusted in the Agency.
Jamie had come back with the news that Kader was dead, but not from a drone strike. Hanes had tortured and killed him in an abandoned A
gency holding facility near D.C. the day Sam and Ben had flown down to Charleston. The Feds had found Kader’s body the next morning.
Since then, Jamie had been working overtime to find out just what the hell had happened. Thanks to the prisoner from Hanes’s crew, they’d been able to piece everything together. Except for what was hidden in the storage unit.
Hanes and Kader had definitely been working together overseas. Playing both sides, and playing one side off the other.
From what Jamie had said, Hanes had done all kinds of illegal shit to make himself rich, funneling the dirty money into various offshore accounts under fake company names to hide his activities. He’d planned to set Kader up to take the fall for everything, and look like a hero when he took out one of the most wanted terrorists in turn.
But Kader had figured out what was happening, and turned the tables on Hanes at the last moment. From what they could gather, he’d tracked down Sam because of her connection with Luke and her reputation as incorruptible, and sent her the letter.
The key was to a storage unit that matched the coordinates in the note. Federal agents were raiding it now. Whatever was in there would no doubt tell them the extent of Hanes’s corruption. It had been enough for Hanes to kill for.
A light knock sounded on the pocket door. “Yeah,” Luke said, turning to face it.
It opened to reveal Rhys and Dec standing there. “Anything on the storage unit?” Dec asked.
“Not yet.” But he could guess what might be in there. And how Hanes had obtained it all.
“Sam just called,” Rhys said. “The doctors might release Ben tomorrow, if he keeps improving, and if you and Nev are willing to take over his care. Sam and Ben were hoping to be able to stay with you for another week or so, until he’s up to getting on a plane.”
“Of course.” Tomorrow was Christmas Eve. Em’s favorite day of the year. She loved Christmas, but said Christmas Eve was the best because of all the anticipation built up over the course of the season. “They’re welcome to stay with us as long as they want.”
The hint of a smile touched Rhys’s mouth. “Thanks.”