Having him tell her about his past government experience meant more to her than she could express. When he began to explain, she had realized how much he trusted her. Except for his wonderful lovemaking, that had been one of the most precious times of her life. Lying in his arms, having him share his past with her, meant so much.
“McKenna?”
She turned to see Lucas standing behind her. Switching off her mic, she whispered, “You need to get into place. We’re going in a few minutes.”
“I will. Just wanted to check and see if you were okay.”
Lucas might not be official LCR personnel, but he had to know that breaking position to check on another operative wasn’t exactly proper protocol. Maybe working with him wasn’t that good an idea. His protective instincts might hinder his concentration.
“I’m fine. This should be a soft, easy rescue.”
“Just be careful. Okay?”
Her heart melted. Even though she was used to LCR men being protective of her, they’d always treated her like their kid sister. The night was too dark to see Lucas’s expression, but there was nothing brotherly about the tone of his voice.
Her voice thick with emotion, she said softly, “We have a lot to talk about when this is over.”
“That we do, sweetheart.” In a voice filled with laughter, he added, “Talking and a whole lot of other things, too. Count on it.”
Her heart triple-timed. “I am.”
“Everyone in place and ready?” Noah’s voice in her ear jerked her out of her dreams of the future.
“You need to go,” she whispered to Lucas.
Pressing his fingers to her mouth briefly, he disappeared into the inky blackness as if he’d never been there.
“McKenna?” Noah said.
Switching her mic on again, she answered, “In place and ready.” Dylan and Aidan answered and then she heard Lucas’s crisp British voice say, “Ready, mate.”
“Okay,” Noah said. “We go on my say-so.”
Adrenaline surging, McKenna mentally reviewed the plan. Two policemen would knock on the door and ask to speak with Reddington. While he was preoccupied with them, their source inside would open the kitchen door, which was in the back of the house. Noah and Dylan would enter, spread out, and search for Jamie. Aidan would stay outside, a lookout at the back.
McKenna and Lucas would be on either side of the house. If anyone tried to escape, they were to restrain them. As soon as Jamie was located and rescued, they would receive the news. With Jamie’s safety secured, if no one was being restrained, all operatives were to retreat and meet at the end of the drive where their van was parked.
“Go,” Noah said quietly.
Hidden behind a large leafy bush, she focused on the patio, her eyes zeroing in on the glassed double door. If any resident tried to escape, this would be a reasonable exit.
Noah and Dylan would be stealthily quiet as they roamed the rooms in their search for Jamie. She didn’t expect to hear voices until they spotted her. Minutes that felt more like hours passed. The silhouette of a man appeared at the glass doors. McKenna held her breath. Someone trying to escape or just looking outside? Crouched low, she moved closer.
Standing on the north side of the house, Lucas tried to forget that the person on the other side was McKenna. He knew she was well trained. That knowledge didn’t negate his worry. From the moment he’d met her, he had wanted to protect her. Now here he was, working an op with her.
Lucas tensed as a shadow appeared on the second-floor balcony. Light from the window revealed a man running to the railing. He hauled himself over, hung suspended for a few seconds, and then dropped to the ground below. Lucas took off after him.
In the midst of his run, Noah announced, “Dylan has secured Jamie. We’re coming out the back. Everyone check in.”
“All clear here,” Aidan said.
“I have a target. Going after him,” Lucas said.
“I have one here, too.” McKenna sounded winded, as though she were running. “I’m on it.”
“Aidan, assist Kane,” Noah said.
Like hell! “I don’t need help. Assist McKenna. I’m fine.”
Thrashing through the underbrush, the barefooted, almost nude man in front of him sounded like a bull lumbering through the forest. Lucas tackled him and took him to the ground. Idiot only had on a pair of underwear.
Speaking in thickly accented English, the man bucked beneath him and muttered, “I did nothing wrong.”
Wanting to get to McKenna as soon as possible, Lucas pressed his knee into the small of the man’s back. Silently and with quick efficiency, he pulled the guy’s arms behind him, locking them together with plastic ties. Then he did the same with the man’s feet. Spotting a skinny tree a few feet away, Lucas dragged him toward it. Ignoring a new stream of vile curses, he took handcuffs from his utility belt, wrapped one on the man’s wrist, and attached the other to the tree.
Leaving him to curse and proclaim his innocence to himself, Lucas took off toward McKenna’s location. On the way, he reported, “Got one man tied up on the north side. I’m headed over to—” The blast of a gun on the other side of the house had him sprinting.
Lucas halted when he saw McKenna squatting behind a bush. Relief almost put him on his knees. Stooping low, he ran toward her.
“Who the hell is shooting?” Noah asked.
“Guy came out the south patio,” McKenna said.
She turned when she heard Lucas behind her and whispered, “Jerk shot at me before I could even get close to him.”
“Where is he?”
“He jumped off the balcony…ran behind that brick wall at the back.”
Lucas scanned the darkness, looking for a way to sneak up on him. “I’ll go a few yards back into the woods and then come at him from behind.”
She gave him a look like she would argue but finally said, “Okay, I’ll yell out a few insults and keep him focused on me.”
“Don’t keep him too focused on you, okay?”
She smiled. “Gotcha.”
Lucas took off, dropping behind trees and bushes as he made his way around the house. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a policeman running toward McKenna. Another shot was fired; the policeman went down. His heart dropped as he watched McKenna run toward the injured man.
Needing to get the shooter’s attention off McKenna, Lucas shouted: “Hey, asshole, put the gun down!” It worked—the man fired toward him. Ping! Wood flew from the tree Lucas stood behind. Damn, the man wasn’t a half bad shot.
“Lucas, are you okay?” McKenna asked.
“Fine. Stay out of sight.”
“Noah,” McKenna said softly, “we have an officer down; he needs medical attention.”
Noah cursed softly and then said, “Medics should be here soon. Stay with him.”
“His partner’s here with him. I’m going to assist Lucas.”
Lucas jerked around to see that another policeman was crouched beside his fellow officer and McKenna was headed his way.
“Stay put, McKenna,” Lucas whispered harshly. “Don’t give the bastard another target.”
Her answer was a derisive snort.
Knowing it would do no good to tell her again, he watched as she ran toward him. The clouds that had been obscuring the moon shifted, allowing him to see her better. Within feet of reaching him, he saw her expression change from determination to fear. Her eyes wide, she shouted, “Lucas, watch out!”
Lucas turned. He’d been so focused on McKenna, he hadn’t seen the man step out from behind his hiding place. He had a clear shot at Lucas and was poised to fire. Lucas turned back to McKenna, knowing what she was about to do and unable to prevent it. Having only one choice, Lucas flew toward her at the very instant she leaped on him. He caught her in his arms the instant a blast of a gun rang through the air.
Arms wrapped around each other, they fell to the ground.
Lucas heard another blast farther away and a loud grunt. Apparently someo
ne had finally taken the shooter out. Rolling off McKenna, he glared down at her, ready to deliver a stern lecture about staying put when she was told to stay put. Lying facedown on the ground, she wasn’t moving.
“McKenna?” he whispered hoarsely.
Heart thudding with dread, Lucas turned her gently onto her back. Her eyes were closed, her expression one of peace, as though she were sleeping. He felt for a pulse. There…but dammit, not nearly as strong as it should have been.
In the darkness, her black clothing revealed nothing. Forcing the fear away, Lucas quickly ran his hands down her body, searching. Fingers touched a warm, wet spot on her right side. Breath halted in his lungs as his worst nightmare was realized. McKenna had been shot.
twenty-six
Lucas wasn’t much of a praying man. He figured he’d been blessed more than most people; asking God for more seemed damned presumptuous. Now, as he stood over the bed of the woman who was his life, he uttered every reverent plea he’d ever heard, hoping this one prayer would be answered. Emotions exploded like bombs and his entire being felt as if it could disintegrate at any moment.
She had saved his life. Bloody hell, she had saved his life and had almost lost her own.
Though the bullet in her side had gone straight through, missing vital organs, and the surgeon insisted her injury wasn’t life-threatening, she still hadn’t opened her eyes. The doctors believed the cause of her continued unconsciousness was blood loss blended with extreme exhaustion. All vital signs were good. But when the hell would she wake up?
Not one to doubt his decisions once they were made, Lucas now questioned his every move from the moment she’d rescued him in Brazil. He shouldn’t have pursued her. If he hadn’t been so adamant that they meet, he wouldn’t have been on this op where she thought she had to save his life.
And the entire setup with Damon. Hell, he’d screwed that up, too. Used the photos to lure Hughes when he could have easily had them destroyed. Lucas had always known he had a touch more arrogance than most people, but it had always gotten him what he wanted. This time his arrogance could have cost McKenna her life.
“How is she?”
Lucas looked over his shoulder at Dylan. Though he’d only known the man a few hours, Lucas got the idea that not much fazed him. Now, however, his eyes were dark with concern.
“Doctors said she’d wake up when she was ready. I’ve had four specialists in here. All of them swear it’s not a coma.”
“Poor kid’s got to be exhausted after what she’s been through.” He shot a commiserating glance at Lucas. “Waiting’s the worst.”
“You speak as a man who’s done his share.”
A slow shrug and the blankness of his expression increased. A man who didn’t like to talk about himself. Something he could identify with.
“How’s the young woman…Jamie?”
A small flicker of something showed in Dylan’s expression before he quickly masked it and said, “Damaged but dealing. She’s in a room down the hall. You’ll want to meet her.”
Lucas nodded absently. McKenna was his only priority right now. “She tell you what happened?”
Another slow shrug. “Some. Said Reddington was keeping her at the cabin for his son and the kid’s weekend friends. Good thing about it—” He gave a snort of disgust. “If you can call it a good thing. Hughes had beaten her so badly, she was still recovering…so they’d only been entertaining themselves with her for a few days.”
Lucas’s stomach churned. Long ago, he had stopped asking himself what turned people into conscienceless savages. Evil could not be reasoned with or understood, only fought against. “Sounds like the Reddington family had a lot in common with Damon Hughes.”
A quick nod. “She talked a little about her abduction. Hughes’s men took her from the laundry room in her apartment complex, knocked her out. She was gagged the whole time, so she didn’t get to ask them what they wanted. Apparently her ex-husband had made some threats against her, so she just assumed he was responsible.”
“I hate to think what the bastard did when she told him he’d made a mistake,” Lucas said.
“She didn’t tell him. He found out for himself.”
“Why didn’t she?”
“He disabled her vocal cords; she couldn’t speak for a couple of days. By the time she could speak, she was afraid to tell him, figuring he’d kill her. Said she hoped he’d let his guard down and she could escape. Only he found out before she got a chance.”
Lucas didn’t have to ask how he found out. If he saw Jamie’s body at all, he would have seen she didn’t have the scars or brand Hughes had put on McKenna’s body.
“I’m surprised he didn’t kill her.”
His jaw working, Dylan said, “I’m not so sure a small part of her doesn’t wish he had.”
There was nothing he could say to that. Wishing for death rather than going through hell was understandable, considering what the young woman had experienced. McKenna had once felt that way, had taken sleeping pills to escape. How many more times had she wished for death because of Damon Hughes? When the bastard killed her parents? When she’d watched her sister die? Every time he raped or tortured her?
Lucas didn’t want to think about that. McKenna was alive, strong, and resilient. A survivor. And now, soon, she could actually have a life.
“So, physically, Jamie’s going to be all right?” Lucas asked.
“Yeah. Should be well enough to go home in a few days. She’s going to need some counseling, though.”
Lucas looked back at McKenna. How the hell did she deal with what was probably a monthly if not weekly job for her—saving victims from unspeakable horror? In his former job, he’d dealt almost solely with bad, sorry-assed vermin who enjoyed killing others. Rarely were there victims to save.
“Samara’s flying in tomorrow. Noah thought it might help both McKenna and Jamie for her to be here.”
Holding McKenna’s hand, Lucas couldn’t help but wonder if he should be here. She had called him arrogant and stupid. He’d defended his actions, but now they haunted him. He couldn’t get it out of his head: she could have died because of him.
Dylan sighed. “I doubt it’ll do any good to tell you this, but blaming yourself doesn’t help.”
“Does anything?”
“Yeah. Making sure it never happens again.” He jerked his head toward McKenna. “That’s why she does what she does—why we all joined LCR. We know what can happen; it’s either happened to someone we cared about or to us. Preventing it from happening to others deadens the pain.”
Dylan Savage didn’t look like he’d be one to share this kind of confidence with anyone. Lucas appreciated the man’s insight, allowing him to see LCR in a different light than before. He might have always admired their purpose and the work they did, but he couldn’t say he’d ever given thought to their need to exist outside of the work they performed. Now he understood that not only did LCR save lives and rescue victims; the organization also helped those who worked for them. As it had McKenna. Saving others had given purpose to her life and had eased her guilt.
“I know you don’t want to leave her, but I’ll stay here while you go meet Jamie.”
“Why?”
“You’ll see.”
“I—”
“Room 412. Three doors down, on the right. I’ll call you immediately if McKenna wakes.”
Thinking it odd that Dylan was so insistent, Lucas didn’t argue. Besides, he did need to meet with Jamie Kendrick. If she left the hospital before McKenna woke, he wanted to be able to assure her he’d seen the young woman in person and that she was indeed alive and as well as could be expected.
Giving McKenna one last glance, Lucas turned and went through the door and down the hall to room 412. Rubbing his neck wearily, he prepared himself to meet with a ravaged young woman. Knocking softly, he was surprised when Noah opened the door.
“Is Jamie up to having a visitor?” Lucas asked.
Surprising him ev
en more, Noah McCall gave a broad smile and said, “She’s anxious to meet you. Come in.”
An odd feeling of déjà vu washed over him. Lucas walked into the room, then jerked to a halt. Speechless for the first time in his life, he could only stare at the person sitting in a chair by the window.
Consciousness returned in increments. McKenna heard a soft sigh, then the crinkle of paper, as if someone had turned the page of a book. Something told her she needed to wake up. She blinked. When light pierced her eyes, she closed them quickly.
“Hey sleepyhead, are you finally awake?”
Samara? That was odd. What was she doing here? And where was here?
Willing her eyes to open, she blinked again. Finally, able to squint, she saw Samara sitting in a chair beside her bed. Her bed? What was she doing in a bed? She leaned forward to sit up and hissed as pain slashed at her side.
“Don’t try to move,” Samara said. “I’ll raise the bed so you can sit up a bit.”
The electronic hum was McKenna’s first awareness that she was in a hospital bed. What had happened? And then in a flash, she remembered. “Lucas!”
“He’s fine.”
Her eyes searched around the room. Her heart thundering, she whispered, “You’re sure? Where is he?”
“Absolutely. He just stepped out to visit with the doctor again. He’s convinced they’re not telling him the truth about your injury. He’s already consulted with all the doctors here and three others outside, two in London and one in Boston. And now he’s threatening to fly his personal doctor in.” She grinned. “I imagine the entire hospital staff will throw a party when they find out you finally woke.”
Bewildered, she shook her head. “But why?”
“You’ve been unconscious for over two days. Everyone’s been concerned. Lucas…well, let’s just say he’s been on a different level altogether. You scared the hell out of the man.”
“And you’re sure he’s okay? He wasn’t hurt?”
“He’s fine, I promise.”
“Thank God.” Her eyes widened again. “Jamie…how is she?”
Something flickered in Samara’s expression, replacing her earlier humor.
Last Chance Page 29