The Deception

by Kat Martin

  He had no idea what had happened. Something pretty damn bad. Something that had left him close to death. He wasn’t sure how long he had been this way, could be days, maybe a week.

  Once a nurse had disturbed him enough he had managed to open his eyes for an instant before exhaustion sucked him back under. In those few moments, he had seen Kate sleeping in a chair next to his bed. He didn’t think it was an illusion, and it filled him with relief.

  He couldn’t handle the thought that if he had been hurt this badly, Kate might have been injured, too. Or worse.

  He slept again. It felt like an eternity and at the same time merely seconds. When his eyes slit open, the block in his throat was gone. Clear liquid dripped from a plastic tube into his arm and patches stuck to his chest, feeding the heart monitor beeping the endless hours away.

  Kate was still there. Asleep once more in the chair beside him. He wondered how long she had been there, wondered how long she meant to stay.

  The third time he opened his eyes, he managed to stay awake long enough to get a real look at her. She was thinner, paler, dark circles beneath her eyes.

  “Jason...” She shot forward in her chair, reached out and gently took hold of his hand. He could feel hers trembling. “Thank God.”

  “Kate...”

  She leaned over and kissed his cheek, then rushed out of the room shouting for the nurse. He must have faded again. When he came to, she was there waiting. Just as she’d been before.

  She was exhausted and worried, yet hope shined in her eyes. Seeing her that way, knowing the long hours she had endured for his sake, everything she had sacrificed for him, cut him to the core.

  She held a cup of water to his dry lips. “Just take it easy, okay?”

  He took a sip of water, managed to swallow. “How long...have I...been here?”

  “Five days.” She gave him a wobbly smile. “You really had us worried.”

  “What...happened?”

  Her brown eyes filled with tears. “Oh God, Jason, you were right about the windows. I’m so sorry. A sniper shot you. The police are looking for him. So is Bran.”

  “Los... Besos?”

  “Bran doesn’t think so. He and Jax are trying to find the guy who did it.”

  Now that he knew what had happened, fear for her filtered through the pain. “Who’s protecting...you?”

  “One of the guys from The Max has been with me every minute. They want to make sure I’m safe.”

  Relief slipped through him. “Good...guys.”

  “They love you.” She started to say something more, but stopped herself. “We all do.”

  His eyelids began to droop. He needed to sleep, and since he trusted his friends to keep Kate safe, he let himself drift away.

  The next time he awoke, it was dark outside the windows. Then it was morning. Eventually, he began to feel better. Stronger. Each day Kate was there, and as he progressed, his mind began to clear. He began to accept the truth he had known for some time.

  He was in love with Kate Gallagher. Deeply in love. Kate was everything he had ever wanted in a woman. Everything he needed.

  Everything a guy like him could not have.

  He would never forget the pain in her face as she sat next to his bed for hours on end, the worry, the agonizing fear. No woman should have to go through that. Certainly not the woman he loved.

  He’d get better, he vowed. No matter what it took. He’d get out of the hospital and go after whoever had shot him. But he wouldn’t put Kate through that. He was in love with her, the kind of love that wouldn’t happen to him again.

  Because he loved her so deeply, he wanted what was best for her. And the best thing for Kate was for him to give her up.

  * * *

  It hadn’t taken Bran long to figure out Los Besos wasn’t behind the shooting that had nearly ended his friend’s life. Not after he’d discovered the sniper’s lair in the empty apartment in the building across from Kate’s.

  It was easy enough to piece together what had happened if you knew what to look for. The lock on the door had been jimmied to gain entrance and a pane broken out of the living room window. The trajectory of the bullet fit the location, and empty food wrappers scattered around the apartment said the guy had been lying in wait for days.

  Once Bran had talked to Ryker, things began to move even more quickly.

  “After you figured out the guy was ex-military,” Jax had told him as they sat at Bran’s desk at The Max, “I got to thinking about the skip Jase and I went after down in Waco a few weeks back. We were there to bring in a killer named Randall Harding, but there were two other men with him that night, a hard case named Folsom and a guy by the name of Yancy Pike. Folsom made the mistake of running into one of my bullets. Jase put a bullet in Pike’s shoulder, but the wound wasn’t fatal.”

  “I’ve got a bad feeling I know where this is headed.”

  “Pike was ex-army, Bran. A sniper. He was arrested in Waco, but I figured it was worth a phone call to make sure he was still in jail. Sure enough, ten days ago, Yancy Pike was released on bail.”

  “Son of a bitch. We need to find him.”

  Jax smiled. “I got a call yesterday from one of Maddox’s snitches, kid named Tommy Dieter. He heard about the shooting, said he owed Hawk for helping him out of a jam. Said he’d been snooping around asking questions.”

  “He know where Pike is?”

  “Guy’s staying in a scumbag apartment out off Webb Chapel Extension. Dieter says he’s doped up and laying low.”

  Bran clenched his jaw. “There’s no place low enough for that bastard to hide. You get an apartment number?”

  “I got it. Let’s go.”

  Bran pulled open the bottom drawer of his desk and took out his Glock. They left the office in his black Jeep Wrangler and drove out Lemmon Avenue to the apartment building where Pike was staying.

  When they reached the front of the unit, Bran pulled his weapon and so did Jax. They took up spots on each side of the door, and Bran banged hard on the paint-chipped wood.

  “You got one chance to come out of this alive, Pike. Give yourself up!”

  “Fuck you!” Pike punctuated his curse by a blaze of gunfire that blasted through the front door. Bran returned fire, stepped back and kicked the door open. He spun aside as Pike fired again, then sent a deadly double tap into Pike’s chest.

  Yancy Pike went down in a pool of blood, exactly the death he deserved.

  Bran holstered his weapon.

  “Nice work,” Jax said.

  Bran just nodded, his adrenaline still pumping. He sighed as he waited for the police to arrive. He and Ryker would be facing a barrage of questions. But there was no doubt he had fired in self-defense, and it was worth it to see justice done.

  His first phone call went to Kate.

  * * *

  Jase was out of the hospital and back in his apartment. He had phoned Chase the morning of his release and asked him for a ride back to his town house.

  “I’m surprised Kate didn’t insist on taking you home and babying you till you’re feeling better,” Chase said as he drove away from the hospital.

  “Yeah, well, I don’t need babying. I never did.” He sliced Chase a sideways glance. “What I had with Kate was great—while it lasted—but now it’s over and done.”

  Chase frowned. “Kate know that?”

  His chest hurt just thinking about it. “I’ll talk to her, make her understand. I’m not the kind of guy to settle down. You know it and so does Kate.”

  Chase made no comment.

  He helped Jason into the town house and got him settled on the sofa in the living room. “One of us will come by every day to check on you, bring you something to eat.”

  “There’s plenty of food in the kitchen. I always keep the place stocked. I just need to rest a little an
d I’ll be fine.”

  “I’m sure you will. Be smart and don’t push yourself too hard.” Chase headed for the door. “See you in the morning.”

  He was sleeping when Kate phoned later that afternoon. Just hearing her voice made his heart hurt.

  “I didn’t think they were letting you out until tomorrow,” Kate said, sounding hurt. “I can’t believe you didn’t call me.”

  “Reese pulled some strings. He’s good at that kind of thing.”

  “Are you hungry? I’ll pick something up and bring it over.”

  “I’m okay. Listen, Kate. I didn’t plan to do this on the phone, but maybe it’s better this way.”

  “Better? What’s better? What are you talking about?”

  “The bad guys are in jail. Your sister’s killer is dead. We both knew from the start this was a temporary thing. It’s time you got on with your life and I got on with mine.”

  Silence fell on the other end of the line. “Why don’t we talk about this when you’re feeling better?”

  But it would only make things harder. “There’s no use putting it off. What we had was great, but it’s done.”

  She took a deep breath and slowly released it, the soft sound whispering over the phone. “If that’s the way you want it, then I guess that’s it.”

  His chest clamped down. Giving Kate up was the last thing he wanted. He wished he could tell her the truth, but it wouldn’t be fair to either one of them. “That’s the way it’s got to be.”

  “I’m glad you’re okay, Jason. Even if things didn’t work out between us, you were a great friend. Thank you for everything you did.”

  His eyes burned. He rubbed the sting away with the heel of his hand. “If you ever need anything just call me, okay? Just call and I’ll be there.”

  “Goodbye, Jason.”

  “Bye, Kate.” The line went dead. He didn’t expect to feel the same empty deadness inside.

  You did the right thing, he told himself.

  But he hadn’t known it was going to hurt so much. Hell, how could he? He had never been in love.

  * * *

  Three days passed. Kate buried herself in her work, but it didn’t really help. She felt sick with grief, as if someone she loved had died, felt as if some part of herself had been cut away. She hadn’t realized how much she had come to count on Jason, how much he had become a part of her life, her happiness.

  That he had ended things shouldn’t have surprised her. From the start, she had known he would leave. Accepting that didn’t make her feel any better. Every night when she got home, she found herself searching for him, waiting for his phone call, then crying herself to sleep.

  The fourth day, she began to pull herself together. During the agonizing hours she’d sat next to Jason’s hospital bed, she had made some life-altering decisions. After Andrew, she had realized she wasn’t the person she had believed herself to be.

  Jason had shown her the person she was inside, the person she was meant to be. That person needed challenge and adventure in her life, something more than examining books and ledgers and filing reports.

  The first thing she did was apply for her private investigator’s license. There were courses she needed to complete. After some research on which weapon to purchase, she chose a Glock 19. There was a background check before the purchase could be completed, then she took the pistol out to the shooting range to improve her skills, and applied for a concealed carry permit.

  She never heard from Jason. Not once. But her course was set. It was time to talk to Robin Murdock, put her plan in motion. Robin had often expressed a desire to own her own consulting firm. Kate had a business proposition for her.

  They set a time to meet at the office, went into the conference room and sat down across from each other at the rectangular walnut table. Robin was two years older, attractive, single, a high achiever and very good at her job.

  “So what’s this about, Kate?” Robin took a drink from her can of Diet Coke out of the vending machine down the hall.

  “I want to expand the business, Robin. To do that I need your help.”

  “Are you’re thinking of hiring more employees? We’ll need to bring in someone for business development if you do.”

  “I’m going to need marketing help, but not to grow the consulting business. I want to take the company in a new direction. I want to expand into small-business and corporate security. Embezzling, stealing corporate secrets, identity theft, forgery, that kind of thing.”

  Robin sat back in her chair. “Wow, I had no idea you were interested in something like that. It sounds intriguing, but I don’t see how I fit in.”

  “You’d be in charge of the consulting side of the business, the work we do now. I’d specialize in the security aspect. I’ve applied for my private investigator’s license. After the work Jason and I did to find my sister’s killer, I knew what I wanted to do.”

  “Isn’t that sort of work dangerous, Kate?”

  “It can be. But if I keep learning, keep developing my skills, I think I can be really good at it. It’s challenging and interesting, and I think we can make money at it. But it’s more than a job to me, Robin. It’s something I really want to do. What do you say? Are you willing to try it?”

  Robin grinned. “I’ve been itching to take on more responsibility. To tell you the truth, I don’t see where I have much to lose. You’re the person taking all the risk.”

  Kate smiled. “I guess I am.” She thought about Jason and the risk she had taken in loving him. It hadn’t worked out, and the pain of losing him still made her ache inside, but she treasured every day she had spent with him. If she had it all to do over, she would do it again.

  “That’s something I discovered about myself,” she said. “I’m willing to take a risk.”

  She wished Jason had been.

  In a strange way, she felt sorry for him.

  * * *

  Jase sat at his desk at The Max. The investigation business was brisk, Ryker on a murder case, Wolfe working undercover for some big corporation, Bran working a personal security detail for some Hollywood movie star.

  Everyone was busy but him. He hadn’t been able to motivate himself since he’d ended his relationship with Kate. Instead of looking ahead, setting new goals, getting things done, all he thought about was Kate.

  Had he actually believed he’d be over her by now? He had foolishly believed time and distance would numb his feelings for her. Instead, he missed her more every day.

  He looked up as Harper and Chase walked through the front door, laughing and holding hands, felt a pang at how happy they looked. He knew Harper had been in contact with Kate. They were working on the black-tie charity benefit that would donate a portion of its proceedings to New Hope Rehab.

  It was all Jase could do not to ask about her, find out what Kate was doing. Make sure she was okay. Did she miss him? Or was she already over him and seeing someone else?

  The thought made his stomach burn. In the end, he stayed at his desk. If he asked about Kate, it would only make him feel worse. He reminded himself he was doing the right thing.

  By now, Kate would probably agree.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  “Gallagher and Company Consulting.” At the front desk, Laura Delgado adjusted the phone earbud in her ear. “Please hold while I see if Ms. Murdock is available.” She pressed the intercom button. “Robin, you’ve got a call from Victor Markum, VP of Briton, Inc. Are you available to take the call?”

  Kate sat next to Robin in her office, where they were working on their expansion plans.

  “It’s Victor Markum,” Robin said to her excitedly. “It’s such a big firm I didn’t really think he’d call.”

  Kate gripped Robin’s arm. “We need to talk. It’s important. You have to call him back.”

  “Are you sure, Kate? This could mak
e us a lot of money.”

  “She’ll have to call him back, Laura,” Kate said through the intercom. She turned to Robin. “I’m going to tell you something but it can’t leave this office.”

  “Of course.”

  “The FBI is investigating Briton, Inc. The company has big-time criminal connections. So far the Bureau hasn’t been able to get the evidence they need. This might be a way we can help.”

  “You aren’t serious.”

  “Think about it, Robin. Why would a corporation of that size choose a company as small as we are? Because we have a first-rate reputation, and they think they can control what we write in our report.”

  Robin sat back dejectedly. “I was afraid it was too good to be true.”

  “I’ll call Markum back. If it looks like this could be a way to get inside information, I’ll call the FBI.” When Robin nodded, Kate hurried into her office and closed the door. She returned Markum’s phone call and prayed he hadn’t already contacted another company.

  Victor took the call.

  “Mr. Markum, this is Kathryn Gallagher at Gallagher and Company Consulting. I’m returning your earlier phone call. What can we do for you?”

  “I spoke to Ms. Murdock at an earlier date about our intention to take Briton public. We’d like someone to take a professional look at the business, make management recommendations, that kind of thing. It would just be our main office there in Dallas, of course. But we’d like you to give us a written report, something we can use as we move forward.”

  “We can do that. I can oversee the project myself.”

  “We’d need it done as quickly as possible. A week would be good, ten days at most.”

  “I’ll have to make some adjustments to my schedule, but I think I can make that work.”

  “Great. When can we meet?”

  “How about this afternoon?”

  “All right, say two o’clock in my office?”