by Lori Foster
At her horrified silence, Jackson reached for her hand, gave her a squeeze, then released her again. “Trace says he can talk, but it’s not easy with a broken jaw and nose. His eye is bandaged for a fractured eye socket. Nothing that won’t heal, if he can steer clear of more trouble.”
“And that’s where you come in?”
“That’s his plan.”
“What’s your plan?”
“Depends on what he has to tell me.” Jackson brooked no argument when he said, “If he set you up, if he had anything to do with your kidnapping, he’s a dead man.”
That thought hadn’t even occurred to her! “What if he was just after you?”
He gave her a sideways glance. “There’s no telling how he’s involved, so let’s not borrow trouble.”
“Or anticipate murder?”
“I’m prepared for anything. Get used to it.”
Another order?
He pulled into the hospital lot and parked a good distance from the main entrance. She started to look around, but he caught her chin. “Don’t. If anyone is watching, I don’t want to tip our hand.”
The idea that anyone could see them now made her skin crawl. How did he do this job? “You want them to think you’re unaware of the possible danger?”
Derision showed in a crooked smile. “I don’t want them to think I’m stupid.” He opened his seat belt and then hers. “But thinking I’m cocky, that I trust Tobin, that’d be a plus. It’d give me the upper hand.” He opened his door. “Stay put until I come around.”
With reflective sunglasses in place, Jackson circled the hood to open her door. Alani stepped out—and moved to his left as he’d instructed. She wanted to ensure that she didn’t slow, hinder, or in any other way interfere with his work. He probably expected her to be a liability, one more person he had to protect, but she badly wanted to prove him wrong.
She wanted his attention only as a woman, not as a potential victim.
Parked so far out, they had to pass scraggly landscaping, disreputable cars and a few loiterers. Each time panic tried to come alive inside her, she did her best to conceal it with bravado; if Jackson wasn’t concerned, why should she be?
“Deep breaths, honey. Remember, no one is going to take you again.”
Because Jackson wouldn’t let them. “Of course not.” Her smile fell flat. “I’m sure it’s fine.”
He gave her a telling look, but said nothing.
Wishing she could see Dare or Trace instead of just trusting that they were where they should be, she walked fast to keep up with Jackson’s long stride.
They had almost reached a walkway that circled around the hospital when something moved in the bushes. A deep-throated, raspy, growling snarl emerged.
She jumped—but Jackson didn’t.
“It’s okay. Just an animal.”
“Here?” That seemed unlikely to her, given the congested area.
Frowning, Jackson stared a moment, and then moved closer to the bushes and went down on one knee.
The urge to scan the area almost overwhelmed Alani. “Jackson.” She tried to remove the shrill note from her voice. “What are you doing?”
“Wait.” He made a sound, gentle and persuasive—and a furry-faced cat poked out its head. Giant emerald-green eyes shone through long gray and cream-colored fur.
“Ohhhhh.” Alani’s heart dropped. The poor thing looked half starved, skittish and a little wounded with his long fur all fuzzy and matted. “A kitten.”
“He’s full grown,” Jackson said, “just scrawny.” He continued to hold out his hand, and the cat got close enough to sniff him before darting back into hiding.
“I bet he’s hungry.” Alani could never bear to see any animal in need. One of her favorite charities was a no-kill animal shelter local to her home. When she could, she volunteered to walk the dogs and brush the cats. “I know this is bad timing, but I hate to just leave him here.”
“It’s important to you?” Jackson didn’t sound judgmental as much as curious.
Again, she glanced around the area, but other than a few cars finding parking spots, she saw nothing. Still, better not to drag out this conversation. “I know in the scheme of things, with human lives on the line, one stray cat doesn’t seem like a big deal.”
“It’s a big deal to me.” He turned back to watch the cat. “I don’t like to see anything suffer.”
Such an amazing man. Alani put a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe once we’re on the road and it’s safe, we could make a call to a shelter or something.”
Jackson came back to his feet and took her hand again. As they walked, he said, “Let’s see what we can figure out when we come back this way. Maybe I can catch him or something.”
“You’re serious?”
He rolled one shoulder. “Why not? If he’s still hanging around later, then it won’t hurt to try.” He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles in apology. “But right now, I can’t.”
Alani looked back over her shoulder and saw the cat staring after them, his big green eyes hopeful but wary.
So Jackson would kill Marc, but he wanted to coax out a mangy cat to care for it? “Amazing.” She hugged herself to his arm. “I hope he hangs around.”
“Me, too.” He led her along to a service entrance probably used for deliveries.
She expected an alarm to go off when he opened the door next to a loading dock, and when it didn’t, her heart settled back into a normal rhythm.
Now that they were inside, she felt safer, and even let out a breath. “Thank goodness we—”
In the next second, Jackson stopped and put her behind him. “Footsteps, coming fast.”
And that put him in combat mode? They were in a hospital, after all. A quiet branch of the hospital, but still… She peeked around him and saw a long, empty hallway with numerous closets. Matching her tone to his, she whispered, “Could it be a custodian, maybe?”
Right before her eyes, he seemed to get bigger, harder. “I don’t think so.” He opened one of the closet doors and pressed her inside. “Back wall. And not a word.” Then he stepped into the room, too, but stayed near the open doorway.
Going numb with fear, Alani peered around and saw stacked boxes of supplies along with some mop buckets, bottles of cleaner, and various-size brooms and vacuums. Stepping over and around the clutter, she backed up until her shoulders touched the far wall, just as Jackson had requested.
With each footfall that sounded closer, her windpipe seemed to constrict and her heartbeat accelerate. She didn’t know what to expect, but in the back of her mind, she still thought it was probably a lot of worry for nothing.
Surely it was just someone visiting a patient.
Or a doctor. Or nurse.
She’d almost talked herself into breathing normally again, and then suddenly Jackson and another man were physically engaged.
It happened so fast that she had to slap a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream. Jackson moved away from the closet even as a large dark man lashed out toward his face with a knife.
On the balls of his feet, his limbs loose, his expression anticipatory, Jackson ducked the lethal blade, then, showing lightning-fast reflexes, punched the man in the throat.
He followed that with an elbow to the man’s head, and a knee to his midsection.
Oh, wow.
The knife clattered to the linoleum floor, and the man, doubled over, grabbed at his throat. Already turning blue, his eyes bulged as he choked and gagged. The awful sound he made resembled a goose’s honk before Jackson shoved him back into another man who tried to draw a gun.
Thrown off balance, the second guy stumbled, and Jackson moved in. His fist landed on the man’s jaw with unerring force. Head snapping back, the man staggered, and when he righted himself, Alani had no doubt that he suffered a badly broken or dislocated jaw. The grotesque misalignment of lips and teeth made her stomach lurch.
Not giving the man an opportunity to recover from that first blow, Jackso
n hit him again, shattering his nose and sending blood to spray all over his shirt. One more punch, and the guy crumpled awkwardly, one leg twisted beneath him, his ankle unnaturally turned.
“Oh, my God.” Alani knew that Jackson, Dare and her brother were capable, but she’d never seen, never expected…
After picking up the gun and knife, Jackson leaned into the closet and caught her wrist. “Out.”
“Oh, my God,” she said again as she began picking her way over the clutter, her thoughts rioting, her limbs quaking.
“Move your ass, babe. They won’t stay out forever.”
“I’m sorry.” Remembering her determination to be an asset, not a liability, she blocked the gruesome sight of fallen bodies and hastened her step.
Besides, she did not want them coming to while she remained in the vicinity.
Once out of the way, she peered at the demolished men. Jackson had taken them out with very little effort. He wasn’t even breathing hard. “Unbelievable.”
“So little faith in my ability?” With practiced ease, Jackson shoved the first guy, who’d passed out from lack of air, onto his stomach. Using nylon restraints, he bound his hands behind his back, and then his feet. He dragged him into the closet and came back out to do the same to the second man.
The guy started to revive, and, casual as you please, Jackson slugged him again, putting him out once more.
Alani looked at his big fists, at how he wielded them so effectively, and at the same time she couldn’t help but think of how gentle he could be when touching her.
Jackson was not an ordinary man with simple motivations and morals.
The amazing contradictions left her fascinated.
In efficient haste, he bound both men, and then, using the big knife, he cut strips from their shirts to gag them.
They were left so uncomfortably constrained that Alani almost felt sorry for them. Almost.
Lastly Jackson hobbled them by attaching their foot restraints and hand restraints together. If they came to—and Alani had no idea if they would—they’d be able to do no more than flop about like beat-up fish.
Feeling very ineffectual, she stood by in an agony of suspense, certain that someone would come down the long hall and bust them doing things so…illegal and scary and insane.
But with the men both secured, Jackson let out a breath, smiled at her and used both hands to finger-comb his hair back. “Ready?”
Speechless over his ability and negligent disregard of what had just happened, she stood there.
He said, “Shake it off, woman. I need you with me one-hundred percent.”
“Of course.” She nodded, swallowed and finally found her tongue. “What do you need me to do?”
He barked a laugh but said nothing else as he freed the cell phone from his jeans and, using his thumb, called Dare. After a brief hesitation, he said, “Disabled two, but there has to be a…you got him already? Great. Yeah, I’ll let Trace know.”
Alani said, “There was a third?”
He disconnected the phone and nodded. “Yeah. Someone had to tell them where we came in, right?”
Oh. She hadn’t even thought about it. They’d entered, and the bad guys were just…there. “They wanted to kill us?”
He shrugged. “No worries, though. These two are through, and Dare took care of the other guy.”
She had no idea how Dare had taken care of him, and didn’t ask.
Using the phone again, Jackson hit a few keys, waited and the phone beeped back in return.
The complexities of their operation astounded her. “Code?”
“Yeah. Letting Trace know what happened.” He tucked the phone away and looked at her in expectation.
Alani shook her head. “You’re scary.”
“Yeah. Scary, but with mad skills, right?” He smiled and slung an arm around her shoulders for a brief hug. “Damn, but I needed that.”
“You…” She couldn’t credit his manner. “Why in God’s name would you need bloody violence?”
“Sexual frustration?”
Thinking of his excessive drive, her jaw loosened. “I’ve left you frustrated?”
“Course not. But we keep getting cut short.”
“Cut short?” She couldn’t believe she was having this conversation now.
“That’s right.” He slewed a hot look her way. “I only had you alone for three days.”
And they’d made love multiple times each day, sunup to sundown, and a few times he’d even awakened her halfway through the night. “Are you insane?”
“About sex? With you?” He gave her a lazy look. “Probably.” He switched gears again. “I doubt there are any more of them here right now, but we’ll find out soon enough. C’mon.”
She said nothing else as they made their way through the hospital. Once they reached the elevator, they could see people in the lobby, which, to Alani’s mind, diminished some of the danger.
But still she couldn’t relax.
“Hey.” Jackson drew her into his side. “Take a deep breath.”
She tried, but it didn’t help. And that frustrated her, too. He was so blasé that her edginess seemed amplified in comparison.
Jackson looked down at her. “You did good.”
If only, but she knew the truth. “I did nothing.”
“You didn’t get in my way. You didn’t scream.” He teased a lock of her hair. “You didn’t faint. Or puke.”
True. She put her hands behind her, not wanting him to know how she trembled. “There’s no doubt they were bad guys?”
“Definitely bad. You saw the knife and gun, right?”
She pointed out the obvious. “I’ve seen yours before, too.”
He snorted. “Not the same thing and you know it.” The elevator doors opened, and Jackson drew her inside with him. “They weren’t selling cookies, babe.”
Odd, considering what had just happened, but Jackson no longer oozed menace. “You seem more relaxed now.”
“Yeah, well, I knew that was coming but didn’t know when, and I was a little…wary?” He liked that word and nodded. “About how you’d take to it, I mean. I didn’t want to upset you.”
That had been his uppermost concern?
“But like I said, you did good. Real professional.”
She’d cowered in the closet as instructed. “You like how I follow orders, do you?”
“Is that what you were doing?” He bent and took her mouth in a warm kiss. “Maybe I should try a few orders in bed. What do you think?”
It stunned Alani, but she sort of liked that idea. “Maybe.”
His eyes flared—and then he kissed her again. “Dirty pool, woman. You’re giving me a jones when I can’t do anything about it.”
Alani started to look to see if that was true, but he hugged her closer.
“No, don’t stare. It’ll make it worse.”
When she laughed, he grinned at her. Amazing, amusing, macho Jackson. Surely no other man could be like him.
The second the elevator doors opened on the right floor, he caught her hand and stepped out. “Let’s keep it together while we see your ex, and then I can get you out of here and maybe someplace more private.”
Now knowing that Marc played a part in the recent tribulations, she didn’t appreciate the teasing. “You don’t have to refer to him that way.”
“Why not? You dated the putz, remember?”
And that was his point? To make her remember? She wanted to elbow him, but decided against it when he stopped outside a door.
“Ready?”
Nervousness overtook her. She thought of the pictures he’d shown her, the way Marc had betrayed her. No, she wasn’t ready at all, but she nodded anyway.
Jackson wasn’t fooled. He cupped both hands around her neck under the fall of her hair. “You’re a gutsy broad, Alani. You’ll do fine, trust me.”
Gutsy broad. Coming from someone of Jackson’s caliber, it was the nicest compliment she’d had in a long while. “A
ll right, then. Let’s get this over with.” She pushed the door open, stepped inside and drew up short at the sight of the bloodied, battered, unrecognizable man resting in the hospital bed.
Now she might faint.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
JACKSON DIDN’T GIVE ALANI a chance to get too wobbly. That she put on such a brave front was admirable enough. He appreciated the effort, but he wanted her to know it wasn’t necessary. He put an arm around her, as much to steady her as to reinforce his claim for Tobin’s benefit.
Looking a lot like peeled, bruised fruit, Tobin peered toward them with one black-and-purple eye so swollen it was a miracle he could see out of it. A white bandage covered the other eye. Dark bruises spread out over the bridge of his misshapen nose. With bloody ears, fat lips and various other injuries—and that was just on his face—he made a pitiful sight.
Not that Jackson planned to show him any pity. Hell, no. “How’s it hangin’, Tobin?”
When the bastard groaned, Alani came alive. “Marc, oh God, are you all right?”
“I’ll survive,” he whispered in a pained rasp. “I’m sorry…a drink. Please.”
Jackson held Alani back. “I’ll do it.” He didn’t want Alani anywhere near the prick. She was so bighearted that she’d be forgiving before they even knew how badly Tobin had compromised her security.
Circling to the other side of the bed, Jackson lifted the paper cup with the straw and put it to Tobin’s cracked lips. Alani stared at him in wonder, as if he’d surprised her again.
She’d done that a lot today.
After several sips, Jackson set the cup back on the rolling bedside table. He pulled up a chair for Alani, making sure she kept a safe distance away, then crossed his arms and stared down at Tobin.
“So you got worked over, huh?”
“Yes.”
Unwilling to hold back his disdain, Jackson grunted. “No more than you probably deserved.”
Tobin surprised him by agreeing. “I fucked up.”
“No shit? And you’re smart enough to realize it?”
“You thought I got rich by accident?” He shifted, his face frozen in pain for several seconds as he caught his breath. Finally, moving slower, he got situated in a more upright position. “I’m not an idiot.”