“There’s something wrong with you, Mercy. Jesus.” Wylie laughed. “So why are you here? You aren’t blowing your cover for nothing.”
“Nobody could reach you, and you never checked in after your last call. They sent me in to let you know you weren’t alone here. I’m watching your back. And to let you know that an extraction team has been set up and is at the ready. As soon as Eva is stable enough to travel, you guys are out of here, and you’re bringing your doc with you.”
“How and where? Does the doc even know?”
“Seems you have a good friend here with a helicopter and a private jet who can make things happen quickly. He has a pilot ready and everything. Everyone is on standby to take you wherever you need to go, and it just so happens Wyatt Ranch has a private runway.”
“Meeting up with the team. That means there’s new info,” Wylie said, reading between the lines.
“Yep. The bounty is now higher on you and Eva. They—”
Wylie interrupted, “Whoever they are.”
“Exactly. They know you two are together and on the lam. You’re sitting ducks all on your own out here.”
“Did someone from the team tip them off?”
“Nope. They tailed you the minute you left Portland,” Mercy grunted. “I saw the tail when I was behind you.”
“And they didn’t do anything when I was alone. They wanted me to find Eva.”
“That’s my guess, but who really knows. Hard to profile a ghost, and that’s what we’re dealing with at the moment.”
“Why aren’t they after you? You’re a one-man show right now and even more exposed and vulnerable.”
“I’m guessing it has to do with my brother being the president of the United States and drawing the wrong attention. They couldn’t give two shits about me.”
“They don’t want any attention on DC, so they’re playing it safe. They’ve determined then that you going to your brother, Ransom, is less a risk than coming for us to save whatever we’ve uncovered.”
Mercy agreed. “Which confirms this has been all smoke and mirrors to distract from whatever we got close to, and they’re trying to protect.”
“They think we know more than we do,” Wylie decided. “They’re worried.”
“Which makes them desperate. You guys are convenient fall guys for whatever goes down—if they get caught.”
Wylie raked his hands through his shaggy hair. “They’ll pin it all on us. This is the setup.”
“Bingo,” Mercy interjected. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. We stepped in something big. If only we knew what.”
“Something bigger than a ship full of drugs and military-grade weapons.”
25
Wylie woke up to Eva stroking his arm and jumped to his feet.
“Oh my God. Eva.”
She smiled weakly
Wylie sat at the edge of her bed and brushed her hair from her face. He laid the back of his hand on her forehead, not caring he didn’t have gloves or a mask on.
“You’re not warm. You don’t feel warm.” Joy filled his tone and matched the smile he was quickly wearing. “Do you need anything? Does anything hurt? Let me get the doc…”
“Wylie,” she murmured in a near whisper. “Shut up.”
He laughed. He’d missed her sass and bossy demeanor. “Okay. Just tell me what you need, and I’ll go get one of the docs.”
“I just need you,” she said, weaving her fingers between his. “I feel like I was hit by a truck.”
“Not a truck, but close,” he teased, noticing her open wounds looked better. Some of the smaller ones were even healing over a bit. This had to be good news.
“You don’t look as pale.” He ran his hands through her hair, tucking it behind her ears.
“Good, because I don’t feel as pale.”
“You really had us scared for a few days. Had me scared.” Wylie choked on his words a bit, fighting back the emotion suddenly consuming him.
A look of worry washed over her. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Few days?”
“You’ve been out for a few days, honey. But you look better, so much better,” he said, dropping his head. “Just hearing your voice…”
“Shh,” Eva consoled. “I’m okay. I’m going to be okay. I’m just tired.”
“Hey,” he jabbed. “That’s what started all this. You said you were tired.”
She smiled again.
“I love seeing you smile,” he said. “I love…”
“Hello, Eva.” Dr. Mathers interrupted as he entered the room with Doc Baine. “Happy to see you awake. I’d ask how you’re feeling, but I’d imagine it’s pretty shitty.”
Wylie snorted. Turns out, Dr. Mathers has a sense of humor.
“That would be accurate,” she said, turning her attention to Baine as she reexamined the room. “Doc Baine? What are you doing here?”
“Don’t worry, this is a people hospital, not an animal one,” he teased. “I have been your nurse, for lack of easier explanation. I’m happy to see you awake.”
“So I guess this got pretty serious? What happened to me?” The longer she was awake, the easier things started to fall into place, and awareness settled in. “I thought I was sleeping…in a bed…at Wylie’s.”
“You were. You got really sick. I’ll fill you in a little later. Let the docs look at you and make sure all is good, okay?” Wylie said, turning his attention to the doctors. “I need to let the team know you’re awake and to deploy the extraction team.”
“She’s not ready, Wylie,” Dr. Mathers insisted. “She’s only just woken up. Let’s give her a little time to regain some strength. She’s going to need a few days. We don’t want this all to go backward on us.”
“I’ll do my best, but Doc…I don’t think we have a few days.”
As the day went on, Eva seemed to come more and more awake, her mind definitely fine, her body a little behind as it was still pretty weak after going through such an ordeal. Dr. Mathers was still administering her medications but had cut them back slightly as not to get too confident and let the bacteria back in. Things were looking up.
Wylie had filled Eva in on all that they knew to date, and it devastated her. Not just that someone had intentionally infected her as they did, but just how close the enemy was at all times, it seemed. But mostly, it upset her to know how hard Wylie had taken it and that he blamed himself.
They’d spent the day talking about everything, then nothing. Checked in with the team on video conference when they all chimed in, happy to see her improving. There were tears shed and laughter shared. A plan was in place, and they’d be leaving in forty-eight hours, along with Dr. Mathers, and meet up at the ranch where Eva would continue to receive care.
Most of the day was focused on them and all the things they hadn’t had a chance to say to each other—a shift in the air—a shift in their relationship. New commitments had been made, and a pact to never try to die on the other was now in place.
“Mercy was here,” Wylie said.
“Oh, great. I’m sure I looked pretty for that visit.”
Wylie laughed and kissed the top of her head as he laid next to her in her bed. “You’re always beautiful. He knew better to say otherwise…”
“Or you’d kick his ass?”
“No. I mean yes, but I wouldn’t need to. He’s afraid of you,” Wylie teased.
“Of me? I’d never hurt Mercy. He’s one of the kindest men I’ve known.”
“Well, that death stare you gave him in the woods when you were standing on the back the first night here was enough to make him run and fast.”
“So there was someone in the woods. I knew it.”
“Mercy has been with us all along. The whole way.”
“The men outside my tia’s shop?”
“That was Mercy and Betty.”
“Betty?”
“Apparently, that’s what he named his long gun. The dark car with black windows was Mercy. He was on our tail the
whole way.”
“Even in Vegas then. Did he see the guy…the one with the backpack?”
Wylie shook his head. “Saw him but didn’t get him. He was tracking me the entire time though, that’s how he always ended up where we were. One of the snaps on my duffel was a tracker.”
“Thank God for that,” she said. “He definitely helped us out of a couple of situations that might have been a little tougher otherwise.”
“I owe him,” Wylie admitted, feeling in debt to his friend. “I should have trusted him from the beginning.”
“Everything happens for a reason, Wylie,” she reminded. “If he was there, with us… Who knows how things would have turned out.”
Wylie sat on her words for a moment and reconciled all that they meant. “It would have changed everything. And aside from you getting sick, I wouldn’t change a thing. But that makes me selfish. The right thing to do would have been to come in as a team and get you out as a team.”
“You can’t blame yourself for any of this, Wylie. You followed your heart, and I’m so glad you did. I wouldn’t change a thing. This is exactly how it was supposed to happen.”
“Except you wouldn’t have been as exposed in Vegas. You would have had one of us on each side of you, so you wouldn’t have been cut and infected.”
“No. You or Mercy would have, and I wouldn’t be able to live with that, knowing it was for me.”
“I’d take that for you any day.”
“I know you would, and that’s what scares me most. A life without you, Wylie, is only half a life.”
And that was when he knew she felt about him the way he felt about her. Wylie had that exact realization when he thought he was going to lose her.
“We’re going to get through this,” he reassured, pulling her into his side when he noticed her eyes getting heavy. “No more worrying. We’ll get our chance, Eva. We just have to get you better first.”
After a long silence, he assumed she’d drifted to sleep, and she nearly had, but then she whispered, “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
26
Dr. Mathers startled when Eva’s hospital room door flew open, and Mercy and Ronan came through.
“What the fuck?” Dr. Mathers said, catching everyone off guard. For a quiet man, he was full of surprises. “What are you doing? Can’t you see I’m with a patient?”
Mercy and Ronan exchanged odd looks before each took a turn offering Eva a hug and well wishes.
“It’s good to see you doing better, sunshine,” Ronan sighed in relief. “My cousin was crying himself to sleep, pining away for your recovery.”
Wylie flipped him off.
“I wish I felt like sunshine,” she joked, extending an arm for Doc Baine to cover her wounds to protect them from further infection or spreading. “It’s good to see you both.”
“Jesus, Eva,” Ronan sneered through his teeth. “That’s what they did to you?”
“Trust me, it’s a thousand times better. Most of my bruises are gone. It looked so much worse.”
Ronan lifted a brow at Wylie who nodded, sharing the same knowing look. Someone would pay for what they did to her.
“I wish we were here for a friendly visit,” Mercy interjected, “but we have news. It’s moving day.”
“This lady has been to hell and back,” Mathers insisted. “She’s not in the clear just yet. We don’t know how the body will bounce back or if the bacteria will.”
“Back is the operative word, Dr. Mathers,” Eva asserted with a smile. “I feel much better than I did. I know I have some healing to do, but mostly, I just feel tired.”
“Good,” Mercy announced, looking at his phone, then snapping his fingers, “because we’ve got to go.”
Wylie moved to Eva’s side, standing between her and the two men. “She’s not ready. Mathers said she isn’t ready. A few more days…”
“We don’t have the luxury of a few more days. We have minutes.” Mercy preached, turning to the doctor. “Is she stable enough to fly?”
“Well. It appears so, but again…this is all new, and we don’t know what to expect next.”
“That has to be good enough,” Mercy said. “We’re going to need you to get dressed, sweetheart, and out that door. Quickly.”
“Seems I need to get my go bag,” Mathers remarked, sensing the urgency.
Baine followed. “I’ll help. The supply bag is already packed.”
“They know where you are, Wy,” Mercy insisted. “They know where both of you are.”
“Then we’ll just get her back out to my place and…”
“They sent Ro and me ahead of a small army that’s on their way here, right now.”
“Wylie.” Panic overcame Eva.
“It’s okay, darlin’, they aren’t taking you anywhere.” Wylie raised his voice when Mercy tried to move around him. “She isn’t ready, man. She just woke up. She isn’t…ready.”
Baine brought in a set of comfortable clothes for Eva and set them on her bed. Then he pulled the curtain so she could have privacy while she dressed.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa…” Wylie sneered. “What’s going on here? What are you doing?”
“You asked me to protect her when we first arrived…that’s what I’m doing.” Baine pleaded, standing tall to Wylie despite his overwhelming size. “I’m protecting her from you, Wylie.”
Wylie took a step back, stunned by Baine’s words, realizing each one was true. He was torn between his gut and his heart, and fear for her life was the driving force. Staying wasn’t an option, it seemed, but leaving wasn’t either. She wasn’t well enough.
“Then take me,” he said. “I’ll go. I’ll make it an easy arrest. Let her stay here and continue to heal. Put a team on her door, and…”
Eva pulled the curtain back. “You’re coming with me, Wylie. I need you with me.”
Ronan looked back and forth between them. “The bounty is for her too. There’s a warrant for both arrests and bounty to bring you in. The bounty went wide. There are people everywhere looking to cash you both in.”
Dr. Mathers returned with a wheelchair and waited at the door.
Mercy tried to make the decision easy. “Additional crimes are pending against those warrants now too. The list is long. Domestic terrorism is just the beginning. They get either one of you, and you aren’t coming back out.”
“I’m the only warning you get,” Ronan rasped. “They think I’m doing recon, and if I don’t report back in the next”—Ronan glanced at his watch—“five minutes, they’re coming here.”
Wylie paced the room, hand gripping the back of his neck. “I get it, I get it…”
He looked at Dr. Mathers and stood toe-to-toe with him, making the man cower. “You. That’s how they found us.”
With his hands in surrender, Mathers began to plea with Wylie. “I didn’t tell anyone. I swear. I’m not like any of them. I’d never do that, especially given Eva’s condition…”
“He didn’t know, Wy. The doc didn’t know they had him. It’s his watch. I overheard these pricks,” Ronan said, stepping between the two. “He didn’t know.”
“My watch?” Mathers began to remove the watch in total disgust. “It was a gift. I had no idea.”
“Where’d you get it?” Wylie asked, certain it was a valuable clue if it led their enemy right to them.
“The whole team got them,” he replied, completely flustered. “Everyone who worked on the project…”
“Who, Mathers? What team? What project?”
Putting his hands up in front of him, Dr. Mathers took a deep breath and closed his eyes to collect his thoughts. “It was a special project for Berque Pharmaceuticals. It was a groundbreaking drug, top secret of course, and will do so much good in the world and save so many lives. Since we completed the project fourteen months in advance of our target date with total success, despite obstacles, the president of Berque gifted each of us these gold watches.”
Wylie looked at Mercy
with a shrug. “Berque?”
“Petra Delfonzo,” Mathers stammered. “The gifts were from Petra Delfonzo. She runs the company and holds majority stock. A real bulldog.”
“What does that even mean?” Wylie asked.
“She’s nice enough when she needs to be, but most people…avoid her. She’s…very cutthroat. I can’t imagine her doing this, though. She wears the same watch. Oh, no. This feels straight out of a movie. She has something big, BIG in the works, and if someone is on to it… You may want to check in with her. If I’m being tracked, I would expect the entire team is, including Petra?”
Wylie looked at Eva, seeing how slow she was moving and just how fragile she was still.
“Team one is three minutes out, Wy,” Ronan snapped, “What are we doing here? You need to go.”
“She’s too sick still. We’ll never get out of here in time. They catch her, then they’ll let her die and kill Mathers to ensure she can’t be saved. This was all a setup,” Wylie seethed through gritted teeth. “Mercy, get all that info to the team to sort out. Baine, you have your rig here?”
“Yeah, I staged it here the night before we came in with Eva so we’d have a way out.”
“Good. You’re taking Eva and Mathers to McCain’s place and getting them on that plane. If anyone asks, you’re there to check on his horse or whatever. Mercy, you’re riding along as Baine’s eyes, you got it?”
Baine nodded. “Whatever you need.”
“Man, I’m not liking this,” Mercy objected.
“I don’t care what you fucking like. You protect them. Get them on the plane and to your ranch in Montana with the team. They’ll be safe there. You protect them with your life, you got it? Everyone gets to where they’re going.”
Ronan looked at his phone, “Wy…what are we doing here?”
“Want to play chase?” Wylie asked.
“Jesus, Wylie.” Ronan dropped his head. “You can’t do this. You know how this ends.”
“Give me a little head start to lead them away from these guys so I can buy them the time they need to get to McCain’s. I’m going to create a little diversion so the plane stands a chance to get out unseen. We can’t put anyone who’s helped us in danger or at risk of being named accessories… That goes for you, Baine. You wipe down your rig as soon as you get there. They were never in your rig.”
Brother's Keeper V: Wylie (the complete series BOX SET): NEW RELEASE + Series Box SET included! Page 132