“I’m okay,” I lean up to kiss him, then remember. I jerk in his arms to look around. “Your mom. I couldn’t hold her back. She ran into the chaos to find you.”
Sirens ring through the night and I’m shocked when I hear Grady’s voice. “Jarvis! She’s hit!”
Noah and I look the other way where my brother is kneeling in the grass next to a woman writhing in pain.
“Fuck,” Noah grits and runs to them.
I follow and kneel next to Grady who’s ripping a bullet proof vest off the woman.
Her beautiful face is twisted in pain and when she says through clenched teeth, “Bloody vest did me a lot of good, huh?”
“Ambulance is coming,” Grady clips and looks up to where Noah is resting on a knee next to me. “Crew and Asa are securing the perimeter. We cut the line to their boat and it’s still floating. We came in from the back—I don’t think anyone got away. Asa’s on the phone with CIA now.”
“The CIA,” the woman below me mutters with a grimace. “Lovely.”
“Yeah, someone’s gonna lose their shit,” Grady mutters.
“I’m a nurse,” I assure her as I pull her shirt up to find an ugly gunshot wound, just below where her vest sat. I look up to Noah, “We need to put pressure on the wound.”
Noah yanks his shirt over his head and I wad it and press it to her abdomen, causing her to cry out in pain.
“I’m sorry,” I wince and put my fingers to her wrist. Her pulse is weak and I look up at Grady. I have no idea who this woman is but I have a feeling she had something to do with saving all of us. “They’re close, right?”
“Bugger. Is it that bad?”
“No. You’re going to be fine,” I lie when another scream rings through the night.
Crew comes stalking out of the shadows with his own gun dangling from his hand and his eyes are on Noah. “It’s your dad. He was hit.”
Chapter 32
Aftershock
Gracie
We’ve been sitting in this waiting room way too long for the early hours of the morning. As a surgical nurse, this is not the side of a trauma I’m accustomed to. The helplessness in knowing nothing and doing nothing is like grinding salt in a gaping wound that never heals—infinitely uncomfortable in a way that has left me on edge.
Noah is alive and breathing and healthy, with his arm around me where I’m tucked tight to his side on this pleather sofa that feels more like a park bench, but I don’t care. I’m leaning into his chest, my cheek flush with the green scrub shirt the hospital gave him to wear. He wanted to get me a cup of coffee or something to eat, but I won’t let go of him.
A little bit ago, Asa received confirmation from the Special Agent in Charge at FBI Headquarters for anti-terrorism that the Irish-American faction that came after Noah tonight has been contained. I guess it was easy to do since most of them are dead in the Jarvis’s backyard.
The room is somber but I guess all surgical waiting rooms are. Though, I don’t think this one is on edge only because of those in surgery right now.
Alexander Jarvis was hit in the thigh, and while he was losing blood, Calvin did what he could until paramedics got to him. It was a clean shot with an exit wound and he’ll be fine. He’s already been moved to recovery. They said they’d inform the family when they can go back to see him.
Through the entire debacle, all the information was aired about what Evelyn did to keep Calvin a secret from her husband and son all these years. Noah is shocked at his mother’s deceit and I’m not sure he even knows all the details yet. No one has come right out to say it, but lies and bribery layered on top of indiscretion are about as bad as it can get.
Needless to say, when the recovery nurses give the greenlight for Alexander’s family to see him, it should be an interesting visit.
I can’t think about any of that right now. Other things are more important at the moment, like Donnelly.
The woman bleeding out in the grass was the most critical and taken away first. By the time EMTs got to her, her breathing was shallow and her pulse too slow. There was nothing more I could do in the backyard besides try to contain her bleeding. By the amount of blood lost, the bullet must have nicked at least one vital organ.
I decided to keep that to myself, too.
Evelyn was an emotional mess—between her husband being shot, the secret child she did her best to bury resurfacing, and her son finding out what she’d done, I’m pretty sure the Fourth of July will never be the same for her again.
Noah told his mother he had nothing to say to her while people’s lives were hanging in the balance. It didn’t matter how much she begged, he turned his back on her.
So, here we sit—Evelyn alone on one side of the room lost in her own self-pity, and Calvin in the chair next to our sofa, close to his brother. I can’t say Noah and Calvin will be planning any fishing man-cations anytime soon, but they are speaking. I’ve already decided I like Calvin, and as soon as Noah and I figure out our own future, I’m going to make sure Noah has a relationship with his half-brother.
Crew, Grady, and Asa are here, too. I guess Crew contracts with Donnelly on a regular basis. Noah filled me in on the way to the hospital how he only met her last month but explained she was integral in helping him find me in Turkey.
And she warned him tonight of what was to come and made sure he was prepared. She’s a stranger to me but has helped to save both of our lives. I’ll sit vigil as long as she’s fighting for her life. I need to tell her how grateful I am.
Silence lays stagnant over our group, that is until a man comes stalking in the room wound tight enough to send an electric shock through the air. He’s wearing a pair of gray athletic shorts, a T-shirt expressing his love for the Nationals, and running shoes. His dark hair is a mess and I don’t think he’s touched a razor for at least three days.
The room tenses when he doesn’t stop his pursuit. Asa stands and tries to get to him first but Mr. National is having none of it. He pushes past Asa but Grady is there next, crowding our new guest who does everything he can to push by my brother and reach for Crew.
“I told you to quit giving her jobs!” he yells.
Asa helps Grady hold him back but Crew barely flinches. “She’s good at what she does and you have no say in the matter.”
Noah doesn’t seem concerned and hasn’t budged an inch from me.
“Fuck you, Vega,” he growls.
I tense and lean up to put my lips to Noah’s ear. “Who is that?”
Noah turns to me and keeps his voice low. “CIA.”
“Dammit, Crew. She fucking flatlined in the rig!”
Donnelly … oh shit. It’s worse than they told us. How does this guy know that?
A pin dropping in this room would be as deafening as a gong right about now. My hand on Noah’s thigh tenses and he snakes his up into the back of my hair to hold me close.
“Carson.” Asa grips the guy’s shoulders and looks at him eye to eye. “This isn’t going to help. Take a walk with me. You’ve got to calm down.”
“I don’t want shit from you either, Hollingsworth.” Carson rips out of Asa’s hold. “Like you didn’t lose your shit when your little counselor and daughter were in a drive-by shooting.”
“Calm down, man,” Grady tries. “She wasn’t doing anything she doesn’t normally do.”
He slams his forearm into Grady’s chest and I flinch. “Don’t you think I know that? It’s what I’ve been trying to put a stop to, dammit.”
“Oh, I get it,” I whisper for Noah’s ears only.
“I had no idea,” he murmurs back.
Carson takes two steps back but doesn’t take his glare off Crew. “If something happens to her, this is on you. You’re a lone-fucking-wolf and think you can do whatever the hell you want—damn the consequences.”
“Hey, now,” Grady steps in. “You know that’s not true.”
Crew looks around the room and lowers his voice. “Can we take it down a notch?”
At that, Carson charges Crew and I brace.
But thanks to Asa and a voice at the other side of the room, the scuffle comes to an abrupt stop before it gets started.
“Isabella Donnelly?”
Everyone freezes and all eyes shift to the other side of the room where a woman stands in scrubs that match Noah’s shirt. Carson thaws first with Crew, Asa, and Grady following.
Carson produces a set of credentials, demanding, “I’m responsible for Isabella Donnelly.”
The doctor glances at all the agonized faces. I feel it in Noah, in every muscle and in his hold on me that’s become as anxious as mine.
Finally, she speaks. “I was the lead surgeon on Ms. Donnelly’s case. She lost a lot of blood and the bullet nicked a kidney and her intestines. We repaired everything as best we could but she’s critical. The next twenty-four hours will be telling. She’ll be in the ICU for at least that long. Right now, she’s in recovery—I’ll let you know when she can have a visitor.”
“I’m going now,” Carson demands.
The surgeon shakes her head. “I’m sorry. Hospital policy—no visitors until we can move her—”
He flashes his credentials one more time and doesn’t take no for an answer. “This trumps hospital policy.”
She sighs and holds a hand up. “If you even think about making a scene where my patients are recovering, I’ll have security throw you out and I don’t care who you are—you won’t return.”
Carson turns to glare at Crew one more time before agreeing, “Deal. No one sees her but me.”
She says nothing and I’m not surprised. She has more important things to deal with than this crowd.
I exhale and lean into Noah.
He turns his head and presses his lips to my temple against my newly forming scar. “I want to stay until she gets out of recovery.”
“We’ll stay until she gets out of ICU if you want,” I agree.
“I’ve got a plan,” he adds.
“Good. We need one.”
“You’re moving to Virginia,” he tells me without explanation or apology. Or asking.
He won’t get an argument from me. “Okay.”
“I have to work for another year, but I have an exit strategy. I’m taking care of everything.”
My eyes sting. He’s doing it again. I’m not used to it and I hate that I can’t control them. I’ve always been able to curb my tears, but these happy ones lately are proving to be stronger than me. “Okay.”
He puts a hand to the back of my head and tips my face to his. “Did I make you cry?”
I don’t answer because my tears streak my face.
He looks proud of himself and it takes my breath away when he smiles down at me. “I’m making it a life goal to see these tears as often as I can.”
I sniff, and it’s not only unattractive, it’s downright gross, but I don’t care. “I think you’re the only man who can say that and get away with it.”
“Then it’s official.”
“What?” I ask. “That you’re crazy?”
He shakes his head. “That I love you and I’m the luckiest man alive.”
I stuff my face into his green scrub top. I’m used to suppressing the hard stuff, but this happiness? It leaves me raw and exposed.
He’s ripped off all my layers.
“I love you, too,” I mumble against his chest.
I feel him sigh when he says, “I know you do.”
This is my future and I want it. Show me where to sign and throw away the key—I’m all in.
Epilogue
Three days later
Jarvis
“Good morning, Spice Girl.”
I watch Donnelly drag her eyes open, and the moment she sees me—I’m not sure if it’s the gunshot wound or my presence—she groans.
“I hardly recognize you without your Black Widow costume.” I lean and grab her plastic cup and hold the bent straw to her lips. She looks like she’d rather ninja me through the window but she barely has the energy to take a pull of water. “I’ve had a hell of a time getting in here to see you. I had to wait in the parking lot for Carson to leave. I’m sure I don’t have long until he’s back since he won’t leave your side but I need to talk to you.”
I’m not sure when she last had a pain pill because it looks like she might come out of her own skin just by clearing her throat. “I’m knackered, Jarvis. Get to it.”
The surgeon said the twenty-four hours after surgery would be critical for Isabella Donnelly—that turned out to be true. She was rushed back into surgery the next day to fix more internal bleeding. Getting shot at point-blank range will fuck you up. The bullet settled an inch from her spine—to say she was lucky is an understatement.
I found out that day that Donnelly was in the US for her own meetings with the CIA but no one knows what they were about. Not even Crew or Asa, and that’s saying something. But given her background with British Intelligence, it could’ve been anything.
In her typical Spice Girl fashion, she found out what was going down with O’Dowd’s organization and jumped into action. I’ll also never complain about working with her again.
I lean forward, putting my forearms to my knees, and lower my voice. “You helped save the woman I plan to spend the rest of my life with. Then you saved my ass. Gracie and I…” I trail off because how do you thank someone for your whole world? I scrape my hand down my face. “I’m grateful and I owe you. Anything you need, I’ll always have your back.”
Her voice is low and rough. “I need you to get Carson off my arse.”
I give her a small smile. “I don’t think there’s a badass in the world who’d be able to do that.”
“Then you’re useless to me, Maverick. Get out of my room.”
I sit back in the hard chair and stretch my legs out. “I’ll wait until Carson gets back. It’ll give you something to enjoy when he chews my ass since you’re too weak to do it yourself.”
Her lids fall and she sighs. “I’m in fucking hell.”
“No,” I argue. “You’re in the US.”
“I thought it was the same thing,” she groans.
“Are they letting you eat? Do you want me to bring you something?”
“I’d kill for a pork pie.”
“I have no idea what that is but I’ll do my best to find it.”
“You’re a real peach.”
“Why do I think you don’t mean that in a nice way?”
She sighs and closes her eyes. “Probably because you’re right.”
“Rest so you can get back to kicking ass. If you go back to sleep, Carson won’t rip me a new one when he gets back. You’ll be doing me a favor.”
She barely acknowledges me before she nods off again.
Carson and Donnelly.
This should be interesting.
* * *
Two weeks later
Gracie
“How’s it going?” Keelie whispers, taking a sip of her wine.
“They look like they’re having a wonderful time,” Bev notes. “It’s their first bonding experience, so special.”
“I’m not sure,” Addy adds as she sways while standing behind the bar with Aimée asleep against her chest. “Jarvis looks a little tense.”
“He needs time,” Maya states. “Men always need more time. He’s had a lot to digest. Especially since he found out it was his mom who killed his chances at Notre Dame because she wanted him close to home. I can’t believe his dad fell on the sword for that one.”
I couldn’t agree more and add, “I think Alexander was guilt-ridden because he cheated on her. He said he was willing to go along with anything she wanted. Just think about how he feels now, missing out on Calvin’s entire life. Sins of a parent can be life-altering.”
Alexander moved out of their enormous Annapolis home on the Bay, but he told Noah he did it with a heavy heart. He’s not proud of his choices so long ago but knowing his wife went to the lengths she did to hide a child from him is
unforgivable. He said he needed space and we’re not sure what will happen between the two of them, or if he’s even been in contact with Camilla.
I look back to where Noah is sitting with his father and Calvin, the three of them together for the first time. I’m feeling all kinds of trepidation right now because this was my idea and I agree with Addy—Noah is tense. “I hope I didn’t make a mistake suggesting this.”
Bev levels her wise eyes on me. “Healing old wounds is never a mistake.”
“You all suck at surveillance.” I look up and Crew is taking his sleeping newborn from his wife. “I’m taking her home. She’s been around the public long enough.”
“We literally walked in five minutes ago,” Addy exclaims.
“Like I said, long enough,” Crew counters.
“I’d better go back,” I say. “If it gets uncomfortable, I can just be chatty or something—fill the void with small talk.”
“You’ll have to tell us everything they’re talking about,” Addy whispers.
Keelie’s eyes widen and she nods. “Yes. We want to know everything.”
“Don’t worry, she’ll tell us.” Maya gives me the look like I’d better. Or else.
Of course, Bev’s smile is dripping with the sweetest syrup. “Just enjoy your visit, sweetheart.”
When I get back to their table across the tasting room, I take my place next to Noah and pick up my glass of water. Noah reaches over and yanks my chair close enough so he can sling an arm over my shoulders before he leans in and presses a kiss to the side of my head. When I look to him, he gives me a smile that I hope is as content as it appears.
I exhale.
Then I turn my attention back to the small family in front of me that was made possible by truths floating to the surface and full transparency, just like Noah has demanded of me. When secrets are revealed, life is good. It might not always be easy, but nothing easy is worth fighting for.
Veils: A Killers Novel, Book 4 Page 28