Deadly Payback (Hardy Brothers Security Book 22)

by Lily Harper Hart

  “That doesn’t mean I need help going to the bathroom.”

  “But … .” James made an exaggerated face. “There’s not enough furniture for you to lean on between here and there. I’ll take you.”

  “That’s a very pragmatic argument,” Grady said, sensing trouble. He got up from the table and walked behind the counter, returning with a set of crutches. “We saw this coming, though. That’s why we agreed to take these.”

  James scowled when he saw the crutches, but Mandy smiled.

  “Thank you, Grady,” Mandy said, accepting the items from him. “This is a great help.”

  “No, it’s not,” James muttered, shuffling from one foot to the other as he regarded Mandy. In truth, it wasn’t just the idea of her walking that had him upset. He didn’t want to be away from her if he could help it. “I’ll wait in the living room as you walk yourself there and do your business.”

  “No way.” Mandy was officially annoyed. “Just … I can go to the bathroom myself. I’ll be right back.”

  James opened his mouth to argue, the admission that he didn’t want her being alone on the tip of his tongue. Instead Grady swooped in – as he was known to do when Mandy got frazzled – and guided his sister-in-law toward the living room.

  “I’ll chauffeur her to the bathroom,” Grady supplied. “When she’s done, I’ll make sure she gets back in one piece. Sit down and eat your dinner, James.”

  James frowned. “Why are you going to take her?”

  “Because I want to talk to her,” Grady replied, opting for honesty. “You should entertain your guests while I handle your beautiful wife.”

  “But … .”

  “The decision has already been made,” Grady said breezily, following Mandy toward the next room. “We’ll be back in a flash.”

  It took Mandy longer than she would’ve liked to make the trek, and when she stopped in front of the bathroom door she found Grady studying her with a thoughtful expression on his handsome face. “Are you going to yell at me?”

  “Nope,” Grady answered, not missing a beat. “You’ve been through hell and I don’t expect you to bow to my will. That’s not fair and that’s not what I’m doing.”

  “Then what are you doing?”

  “Making sure that you understand he’s not trying to be a pain,” Grady replied. “You have no idea how bad things were while you were gone. Now, it seems selfish to put anything on your shoulders given what’s happened over the past week, but I’m going to do it anyway.

  “James fell apart, Mandy,” he continued, glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one was eavesdropping. “He didn’t just cry … and kick things … and yell … and take out his anger on everyone else – although he did every single one of those things, just for the record. He fell apart.

  “He thought you were screaming for him,” he said. “That’s what he kept imagining anyway. It tortured him.”

  Mandy pursed her lips as a lone tear slid down her cheek. “I’m sorry.”

  “You need to stop doing that,” Grady admonished. “You apologizing for what happened to you is not helping anyone. In fact, it’s making everyone uncomfortable. I have no idea what was going through your mind when all of this was going down, but you knew you were alive.

  “And, yeah, you couldn’t drink and he slapped you – and he’s going to pay for that like you wouldn’t believe – but you knew where you were,” he continued. “You had a good idea where James was, too. You also knew what he was probably doing.

  “We had no idea if you were still here or if he took you out of the state,” he said. “Heck, we had no idea who took you because someone spoofed the courthouse cameras. We just knew you were gone … and it gutted my brother. Another day of that and I was going to have to drug him to sleep regardless.”

  “I don’t know what to do,” Mandy said. “I feel like I’ve been shifted out of my life even though I was only gone for a day. Everyone keeps staring at me and James is hovering … and I just need a few minutes.”

  “I understand that,” Grady said. “I don’t blame you for being overwhelmed. You’ve been through more than any one person should ever have to go through. You need to let James take care of you, though. He needs it.”

  “I’m doing my best, Grady,” Mandy said. “I can’t change who I am. I don’t want someone to help me to the bathroom. I do want him to hold me when I sleep … and cuddle on the couch … but this is the bathroom.”

  Despite the serious nature of the conversation, Grady couldn’t stop himself from smirking. “Yeah, well, I honestly don’t blame you. I will talk to him about the bathroom situation. You have to do your best to be patient with him, though. He was honestly lost without you. He made himself sick with worry.”

  “If you talk to him about me being able to shower alone so I can shave my legs tomorrow, too, you’ve got a deal.”

  Grady instinctively leaned forward and hugged Mandy, taking her by surprise. She awkwardly returned the embrace as she tried to balance on the crutches.

  “We all love you, Mandy,” Grady whispered. “You’re a huge part of this family … kind of the heart of this family, if you will. James isn’t the only one struggling. We’re so glad to have you back, but the terror was real and we had to do our best to overcome it until we found you. James simply couldn’t overcome it.”

  Mandy sighed. “I love you, too. I still want to go to the bathroom by myself. I will handle the rest of the hovering. I draw the line at the bathroom.”

  Grady’s smile was genuine as he pulled back. “I think we have a deal.”

  MANDY was out cold before eight. The doctor prescribed medication that knocked her for a loop within a few minutes of taking it. James made a big show of carrying her upstairs and getting her comfortable, climbing into bed and holding her as tightly as possible until he was sure she was asleep.

  He was reluctant to crawl out of bed, but he needed to talk to everyone on the main floor before they left or retired for the evening and he wouldn’t wake his sleeping wife for anything. She needed her rest. Instead, he tucked her in tightly, making sure she was snug and secure. Then he double-checked the lock on the sliding glass door that led to their balcony – taking a long look into the darkness and wondering if Clint watched the house or hid someplace close like the little ferret James imagined – and then turned the bathroom light on to act as a nightlight should she wake before leaving her to what he hoped were pleasant dreams.

  Everyone was gathered in the living room when he descended the stairs.

  “Thank you for staying,” James said, running his hand through his hair. “This won’t take long. I don’t want to be away from her.”

  “You can go up there now,” Grady prodded. “I can handle this meeting.”

  “I know you think I’m losing it, and that’s certainly your right after the way I acted,” James said. “I don’t know what you said to Mandy tonight, but I have a feeling it was something along the lines of ‘he’s crazy.’”

  “That’s not what I said at all,” Grady countered. “I merely told her that she had to keep in mind that things were different for us when she was gone. She knew she was okay. We did not. She was fine with it … as long as you let her go to the bathroom on her own, that is. Oh, and you’d better let her shave her legs in peace tomorrow or she’s going to explode.”

  James snickered. He couldn’t help himself. “She’s so funny. Even now after everything she’s been through, she’s already trying to bounce back.”

  “She is,” Grady agreed. “She’s good at it, too. She’s going to be okay. Once we catch Clint, you’ll be able to put this behind you. The scars on her foot will fade. That’s going to be the only lasting wound.”

  “Not the only one,” James argued. “She’ll never get over losing Heidi. She’s always going to blame herself and nothing I say will completely eradicate that sadness.”

  “Probably not,” Grady agreed. “Punishing the guilty party will help, though. I have faith in that.
”

  “I do, too,” James said, blowing out a sigh. “Where are we on the Clint situation?”

  “The sheriff’s department has frozen his accounts,” MacIntosh volunteered. “He has no access to those funds. Of course, that doesn’t mean he didn’t stash money someplace else before this all went down.”

  “If he did, I’m guessing he hid it at the Eastpointe house or the cabin,” Peter said. “Those would be the only locations he could control. They’re both out of his hands now. The sheriff’s department has men combing through both locations.”

  “If he doesn’t have a lot of money, he’s probably going to get desperate,” James said. “He’s going to go out of his way to get Mandy. That’s all he cares about.”

  “He has to be stewing,” Jake said. “He spent weeks … if not months or years … coming up with that plan. We found him within thirty hours. I mean … he barely had her.”

  “That’s not how it felt to me,” James said, his tone dark.

  “That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Jake said. “I’m sure in his mind he thought he was going to be able to live out his days in that cabin with Mandy at his side and no one would ever discover them.”

  “I would’ve found her no matter what,” James said. “I wouldn’t have stopped.”

  “Not until you killed yourself,” Grady said, making a face. “Listen, I know you’re feeling all vengeful and everything now that you’ve gotten Mandy back, but she needs to be your priority. She’s hurt and still getting over Heidi’s death. Also, and she will never admit this because it’s not in her, but she’s nervous and afraid.”

  James stilled. “What do you mean?”

  “She’s hyper-vigilant, James,” Grady said. “You’ve noticed that, right?”

  “She’s jumpy,” James replied. “She wants me close. That’s why I didn’t want to leave her upstairs by herself.”

  “No one can get in this house,” Peter said. “I have men in the woods and in the arboretum. That’s lovely, by the way. I didn’t realize it was finished.”

  “I didn’t either,” James said, turning toward the back of the house. “I’ve gotten used to ignoring all of the construction. Mandy has been dying to see it. I’ve kept her out of it because I want to make her first visit special.”

  “Well, now is not the time to do that,” Grady said. “That thing is all windows. Let her think it’s still being tweaked until … after.”

  “Until after I kill Clint,” James said. “That’s what I’m going to do. You know that, right?”

  “I know that you’re exhausted and we need to get you upstairs with Mandy before you have some sort of fit,” Grady countered. “As for Clint, we’ve got men from one end of this house to the other. They’re in the woods. They’re in the shadows. Heck, we’ve got two in the garage. Clint cannot make a move on this house.”

  “That’s a good thing, right?” Rose asked, clutching her hands together nervously as she hovered in the archway between the living room and kitchen. “He wouldn’t dare come after Mandy here given all of the men with guns, would he?”

  Peter opted to respond for the group. “We can’t know the answer to that,” he said. “We already underestimated him once. We cannot make that mistake again. I wouldn’t put anything past him.

  “For the record, though, I don’t think he’s desperate enough to move on us yet,” he continued. “The longer we keep Mandy away from him, though, the bolder he will become.”

  “Well, I can’t wait for that,” James said. “Are we doing anything else to find a location on him?”

  “I’m driving to the Thumb tomorrow to meet Clint’s mother,” Grady replied. “I’m taking Sophie with me because she always thinks to ask questions I’m too clueless to bother with.”

  “I want you to take a man with you,” Peter said. “Just to be on the safe side, I mean.”

  “Actually, I was kind of hoping you would go with us,” Grady said. “You’re … intimidating. If anyone can get through to Clint’s mother – who has a reputation for being nuttier than a brownie after Mom and Ally get into a cooking contest – it’s you.”

  “I would actually enjoy that,” Peter said.

  “The sheriff wants to come by tomorrow, too,” Jake said. “He left a message. He says he has information and wants to talk to Mandy and James. He wanted to come today, but we put him off until tomorrow.”

  “That’s good,” James said. “Mandy can only take so much. Is there anything else?”

  “I think that’s it,” Finn said.

  “Okay, well, you guys can do whatever you want, but I’m going to bed,” James said. “My head hurts and … I’m just tired.”

  “No, your head hurts and you want Mandy,” Grady clarified, smirking. “I’ll walk up with you. I want to check on her myself before going to bed.”

  James balked. “I’m her husband.”

  “And yet I love her, too,” Grady said, following James toward the stairs.

  “Tell the truth,” James said. “Are you really going with me because you want to make sure I go to bed?”

  Grady grinned. “Maybe a little,” he conceded. “I also want to make sure she’s okay. Being without her was … sad. I always thought she talked too much … until I couldn’t hear her.”

  James sighed as he trudged down the hallway that led to his bedroom. “I’ve got to be careful,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I do not want to smother her.”

  “She’ll be okay,” Grady said. “Once we have Clint, you guys will spend three days naked and everything will be good again. Trust me.”

  “You’re one of the people I trust most in this world,” James said. “I still feel that way even though you drugged me.”

  “I’m never going to hear the end of that, am I?”

  “Probably not,” James said, pushing open the bedroom door. “See, she’s … .” He froze. The bed was empty. Utter panic washed over him as he strode toward the bed, his heart hammering as he tried to focus. “Where is she?”

  “Hold on,” Grady muttered, heading toward the bathroom. “Maybe she was serious about shaving her legs.”

  “She’s gone.” James looked as if he was going to collapse. “I … how … I don’t … .”

  Grady paused when he passed the twin walk-in closets on his side of the room. He gestured for James to come to him, but it took the panicking Hardy brother a moment to realize what he was doing.

  “What?”

  “She’s here,” Grady said, pointing toward her closet.

  James swallowed hard when his gaze landed on Mandy. She was curled up in a ball, a blanket wrapped tightly around her as she pressed her back to the wall. She was almost invisible. The only reason Grady saw her at all was because the bathroom light hit her face as she slumbered.

  “See, she’s fine,” Grady said.

  “She’s not fine,” James murmured. “She’s afraid to sleep in her own bed.”

  “That’s not true,” Grady argued. “She just … got confused because of the medication.” He wasn’t sure he believed his own words.

  “Close the door on your way out,” James said, stripping off his T-shirt and slipping into the closet.

  “I’ll help you get her to bed first,” Grady offered.

  “I’m not putting her in bed,” James said. “I don’t want to wake her up.”

  “Are you going to sleep on the floor with her?”

  James nodded. “I want her to feel safe.”

  “She can do that in bed.”

  “Obviously not.”

  “James … .” Grady was at a loss. “Do what you think is right.”

  “That’s what I’m doing,” James said, dropping to his knees and slipping an arm around Mandy’s waist. He was as gentle as possible as he settled on the floor and pulled his sleeping wife on top of him. “Make sure you close the door. She needs her rest.”

  “So do you,” Grady pointed out. “You’re back is going to be killing you in the morning.”

>   “I’ll survive,” James said, kissing Mandy’s forehead as she sighed and melted against him. Even in sleep she recognized his presence. “I have her. I can survive anything as long as I have her.”

  21

  Twenty-One

  Mandy was confused when she woke. It took her a moment to realize where she was, and when she shifted her head she found James watching her. Despite the fact that they slept on the floor, he looked well rested. In fact, all of the color was back in his cheeks.

  “Hi.” Mandy was sheepish. “Um … I didn’t mean to fall asleep in here. I was just going to stay until you came back and then … .”

  “Baby, you don’t have to make excuses,” James said, smoothing her hair. “I shouldn’t have left you alone. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “That’s not fair to you,” Mandy argued. “You have a right to do what you want in your own house.”

  “I didn’t want to leave you,” James explained. “I needed to get caught up on the Clint situation with everyone downstairs. I was only gone for a few minutes. I thought you were out.”

  “I was out. I just … woke up for some reason.”

  “I think you woke up because I wasn’t with you,” James said. “I won’t make that mistake again. I’m going to be going through some files downstairs – Peter took the liberty of removing a few boxes from Clint’s Eastpointe house – and we’re going to see if we can track down another possible location. You can stay with me the entire time, though.”

  Mandy pressed her lips together as she tried to keep from laughing. “That’s convenient, huh?”

  “It is,” James confirmed, grinning. “It works out well for both of us.”

  “The medication makes me sleepy, though.”

  “I don’t care,” James said. “You can sleep on top of me while I go through the files. That’s my idea of a perfect day.”

  “Can I shave my legs first … and shower alone?”

  “Yup.” James didn’t hesitate. “You can shower for however long you want as long as you text me when you need to come downstairs. I’m not done carrying you up and down the steps yet.”