She needed some time to work things through in her mind. To Logan, she said, "I'm really tired. Can we talk a little bit more later?"
Logan nodded. "Of course." He stood and headed to the door.
Well, damn, she hadn't meant for him to leave, just let her think a while. Angelina called after him, her voice was still hoarse but improving greatly with use. "Where are you going?"
Flashing her one of his irresistible grins that seemed to make her very insides melt, Logan winked.
"Just need to get me a supersized cup of java. I haven't slept much the last couple of days."
"It's true." Kaiden poked his head in the door. "He hasn't left your side except to visit me for a minute or two and that I suspect was purely out of familial guilt!"
"If you weren't already injured," Logan indicated Kaiden's bandaged shoulder and sling on his arm, "I would knock you in the jaw."
"I am so sorry you got hurt, Kaiden," Angelina croaked through parched lips. "I never should have gotten all of you involved but I am very grateful to your entire family."
"This wasn't the first time I've been hurt in a firefight and it won't be the last. We James boys are like cowboys. A good gunfight is good for the soul!"
Angelina grinned for the first time in days. "If you say so, cowboy, but thank you anyway. I don't think I would be here if it weren't for you all."
"You wouldn't be here if you had stayed in the safe room like I told you too," Logan responded gruffly. His clear blue eyes darkened like a thundercloud moving into the bright Virginia sky.
Kaiden looked from one to the other, a knowing expression on his face. "I'm heading back to my room to bed down for the night. Got me a cute nurse named Katie. Think I'll ask for a sponge bath. A good nurse can't resist a man in pain, now can she?"
The other man disappeared, but Angelina hardly noticed, despite the echo of his laughter from the hallway. Logan was studying her with such intensity she didn't know what to do. His eyes were dark with emotion. Angelina marveled at the way his eyes always seemed to reflect the intensity of what he was feeling.
Finally, his expression softened into a small smile. "I'm going for that cup of coffee now. You get a
little rest. I promise I will be back soon."
She smiled sleepily and nodded. "Okay. I am a little tired."
"Getting shot will do that to a person." Logan slipped back over to the side of the bed and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I'll be back soon. I promise!"
Angelina nodded even as she felt herself spinning away in a deep, medicine-aided sleep. She had no idea how much time had passed when she heard the door open again.
"Hmmm...Logan? Is that you?" she whispered, not really ready to wake up yet. The door clicked shut. The room fell into complete darkness save for the lights on her monitors. Footsteps moved deliberately across the waxed linoleum. The little hairs at the base of her neck prickled. Instinctively she knew it wasn't Logan. Angelina was suddenly very awake.
"Logan? Is that you?" she asked more forcefully.
"Who is Logan?" The familiar voice should have brought comfort. Instead it accompanied a wave of fear riding on the back of panic. "Oh, right, he's that pansy-assed cop you got hanging around night and day. Don't know why he bothers, old Sal tells me you are a cold fish, Angelina."
"J-Jack...what are you doing here?"
"I'm your witsec agent. It's my job to be here. You are hurt and I'm supposed to protect you." There was pure evil in his words. Angelina suppressed a shiver, desperate not to call attention to her useless state.
"How'd you know where to find me?" She tried to sound calm and confident but failed miserably.
"It's my job."
"Was it your job to put a tracking device in my necklace and then sell me out the Ricci family?" Jack stepped into the dim green glow of the monitors then. His eyes looked hard, dark. The eyes of a man possessed. He smiled, the action just making him look more evil.
"Come on, Angelina, would I do that to you?"
"You did do that you and you know it!"
Jack threw his hands in the air in surrender, chuckling as he did so. "Okay, fine, you got me. That was entertainment. And a whole lot of cash. We federal agents don't make as much money as everyone thinks."
"Selling me out to an assassin is entertaining for you?" She tried to yell but her voice gave out. The accusation was nothing more than a weak croak.
"An assassin? That's funny, little girl." Jack chuckled again as though he found real humor in their conversation. "You act like you are someone important, someone that will be missed. Everyone who ever cared about you already thinks you are dead. If you had died when you went off the road, the papers would have done a little write up about the odd woman who never got to know anyone in town. There would be some speculation about alcohol or drugs but beyond that you would have been forgotten in a day."
"And you would have been fifty thousand dollars richer."
Jack chuckled. "I am fifty thousand dollars richer. They think you died on that mountain. I'm just here to make sure they still think that." He picked up an
extra pillow off the chair Logan had been sitting in
earlier and held it in both his hands, stepping right up to the side of the bed.
Angelina panicked. It was obvious what Jack intended to do with that pillow. She had to think fast. Her options were limited. She wasn't even sure her legs would hold her up if she tried to get away. Jack stepped closer, the evil of his grin reflected in his eyes.
In a last ditch moment of desperation, she ripped the I.V. from her arm. Angelina rolled her screaming body to the side, falling to the floor. At the last minute she righted herself, landing on her feet. The wound to her chest fought back in agonizing, searing pain. Gripping her side with one hand, Angelina reached for something she could use to defend herself. Jack, moving deliberately, whistled a little tune as he made his way around the hospital bed. She was backed into a corner with nowhere to go.
"Why do you always have to do things the hard way, Angelina? If you had just stayed out of Sal's business, none of this would have happened to you. You'd still be back in New York City, walking the beat, and living the life I know you miss."
Angelina's back was against the wall. She could feel warm liquid on her fingertips where she held her chest. The wound was bleeding steadily.
Before she could say anything Jack lunged at her. Acting out of instinct, she brought her knee up as hard as she could making contact with Jack's groin at the same time that his foot hit the pool of blood sending him up into the air and down onto the linoleum flat on his back with a thud. Angelina fell against the I.V. pole sending it crashing to the floor with her limp, bleeding body following it.
***
Logan paced the tiles of the waiting room, the half-finished cup of coffee sloshing around in his hand.
"You are going to wear a path in that floor, boy." Aunt Clara had come to visit Kaiden and found him pacing and grumbling in the lounge on her way to her son's room.
"I'm sorry." He stopped where he was and strode over to the window. It was dark outside but the parking lot was well lit below. His reflection in the window took him by surprise. Wild eyes, hair in disarray from the hundreds of times he had run his fingers through it, dirty T-shirt.
"For what?" Aunt Clara cocked her head to the side and studied him, not noticing—or pretending not to notice—the way he looked.
"I don't know. For getting you and the boys involved in this whole mess, I guess."
"There's nothing to apologize for, Logan. That girl was in a load of trouble. You have always been the protective type. It's in your nature."
He dropped down onto one of the cold vinyl chairs and sighed, his shoulders drooping heavily. "If that's true then I should have been more protective over you. Not brought killers to your home. That bunker is your safe haven."
"I don't need protecting. I'm a tough old bird. Who do you think got that first guy who came up the path? He never even knew w
hat hit him!" Aunt Clara glowed with pride as she reached out and patted her nephew's hand. "I have been worried about you for a long time, Logan."
He sat up a little and eyed his aunt warily. "Me? Why?"
"Actually, I worry about all three of you. Kaiden
and Keegan too. You are grown men and you are all alone, every last one of you. I blame myself for that. I
was so busy proving to the world that I could be mother and father that I never considered that the three of you might actually need a real father in your lives. Not a one of you knows how to have a relationship and that's because I did my damnedest to raise you strong willed and independent—a little too strong willed and independent, I fear. I'm not getting any younger. I wouldn't mind a few grandchildren before I go and at the rate my two boys are going, that responsibility is about to settle on you."
"On me? I'm not even your son."
Clara tsk, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. "I've always thought of you as my boy. I hope you know that. Ever since that no good brother of mine...well, ever since you came to me I have only ever looked at you as my child. I love you and I worry about you."
"I love you too, Aunt Clara, but it's not your fault that I am alone. It's his." Logan spit out the simple word with such venom that his aunt looked at him with a mixture of pity and sadness that angered him even more. He started pacing the small waiting area again. Aunt Clara stood in front of him blocking his path, her eyes kind.
"My brother was an evil soul, but that doesn't mean you will be like him. Evil is not genetic. You are a kind, caring man who has dedicated his life to protecting and serving others. Don't you think it's also time you had a little happiness in your life?"
"I'm afraid, Aunt Clara. I am afraid of doing what he did. I couldn't live with myself if I turned out like him."
"You don't have an evil bone in your body, Logan James. Stop punishing yourself for crimes you
didn't commit. The sins of the father are not automatically the sins of the son."
"I don't know. I didn't do such a great job protecting Angelina. She almost died. And Kaiden got hurt."
"Kaiden will be fine. He's seen worse than any of us will ever know. A little bullet won't keep him down for long. As for Angelina, did it occur to you that she almost died trying to protect you? That man behind the Jeep was just about to take you out when she ran out of the house. She took that bullet for you."
Logan stopped pacing. "She did?"
Clara nodded. "Have you considered why?"
"Because she is a cop and it was instinct to go get the bad guy?"
"I suppose I can see why you'd think that, but you didn't see the look in her eyes when she realized he was about to kill you. I did. And I am telling you it was more than just training that sent her running across the yard."
"What exactly are you trying to say Aunt Clara?"
"That young lady is in love with you."
"We have only known each other a couple of days. How could she be in love with me?"
"The same way you have fallen in love with her. When it's meant to be child, it's meant to be. That's how it happened with your Uncle Jed and me, you know. The first time we met I knew I would marry him one day. And I did. We only courted two months before we ran off and got ourselves hitched. Caused
quite the scandal around here actually, especially when
the twins came along around about nine months later.
No one ever believed we didn't get married just because I was pregnant. It broke my heart in two the day he
died when the twins were barely two years old. I still love him as much today as I did then, God rest his soul."
"I never really believed in love. What my parents had wasn't love by any stretch of the imagination. I just figured I was destined to spend my life alone. How do I know what I feel for Angelina is real? I mean, consider the circumstances."
"The heart wants what the heart wants and it doesn't consider the circumstances. Stop listening to your brain and see what your heart has to say."
Angelina's green eyes flashed into his memory and he smiled. He remembered meeting her for the first time and taking her hand in the hallway, the fire in her eyes as she demanded he stay far away from her parking spot. She was feisty and cool but stirred something hot and fiery up inside him. Something that stoked into a real fury the first time they had kissed. Being with her felt good, even when bad things were happening. Holding her felt right, as though their bodies were designed fit together.
"My heart is stupid, Aunt Clara. It says I should risk everything on love."
Clara chuckled and patted his hand again. "That doesn't sound so stupid to me."
"Yeah, well, it is when I have no idea how she feels about me."
"Take a chance, Logan. I've got a good feeling about this." Just then her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. Checking the caller ID, Clara nodded and smiled as she opened the phone. "It's Keegan, probably calling to check on his brother. Go see your lady friend.
She's going to be wondering where you are."
Logan stood up then leaned back down to kiss
his aunt on the cheek. "Thank you, Aunt Clara."
She nodded and smiled, waving him away.
Suddenly nervous, Logan forced himself to walk the hallway to Angelina's room. Twice he almost turned around and went back to the lounge in search of a burst of courage but finally he stood outside the closed door and took a deep breath.
He was certain he had left the door partly open when he left. Maybe a nurse closed it. It was getting late, maybe Angelina was asleep. Gripping the handle, he rapped lightly with a knuckle, more out of courtesy than anything else, and pushed the door open. The room was completely dark. Logan groped for a light switch but froze when a strong odor reached his nose. The fragrance was all too familiar to him.
Blood.
The kind of blood at a crime scene not the kind found in a hospital room recovering from surgery. Logan's skin prickled as he backed out of the room.
Chapter Sixteen
Reaching for the gun on his hip, he used his right leg to kick the door open flooding the room with light from the hallway.
The bed was empty!
"Angelina!" he called into the dark room.
When there was no response he ducked back out of the room and peered up and down the hallway. No sign of Angelina or anyone else. Stepping back in, he tried to rein in the panic that was building.
"Where on earth did you go?" Logan murmured as he looked back out the door, checking the hallway in both directions. There was absolutely no sign of anyone. He was starting to lose his cool just a little when a low moan from across the room caught his attention, and he made his way slowly to the other side of the bed. Angelina lay on the linoleum surrounded by a pool of blood. Beside her was the still form of a man.
Dropping to his knees, he felt Angelina's neck for a pulse, beyond grateful to find even a weak one. Reaching up to the nurse call button on the side of the bed, Logan pushed it impatiently.
"Can I help you?" An overly cheery voice called out of the speaker.
"This is Detective Logan James. I am in the room of Angelina Ferrara. We have an emergency!"
The voice didn't respond. Instead a flurry of footsteps raced down the hallway and into the room. The first to enter was Kaiden's nurse, Katie. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "What happened?!"
"I was going to ask you all the same thing," Logan growled. "Hurry, we have to get her back on the bed! She's lost a lot of blood."
"We need a board and collar! Don't touch her!" one of the nurses cried as Logan reached to scoop Angelina up off the floor.
"No time for that!" Logan was on the verge of panic, the same sort of panic he had felt as a child when his father beat his mother with a baseball bat.
Katie and two other nurses scurried over to where Angelina lay. Together, they moved her as gingerly as possible, placing her in the hospital bed. Katie started checking her vitals while another nurse ran off to get a docto
r.
"One of you needs to call security." Logan motioned to the man still on the floor. "He's alive but I don't know who he is. He damn sure doesn't belong in this room!"
"I know who he is," a small voice spoke up from across the room. Logan turned to see a young woman in a pink striped apron. A hospital volunteer, no doubt. "He said he was Ms. Ferrara's brother."
"All visitors are supposed to be cleared through security! If he had been, he would be wearing a visitor's badge!" Logan bellowed.
"I'm so...sorry! I didn't...know!" The girl covered her mouth and ran from the room in tears. Logan was too worried about Angelina to be concerned
although he knew he would feel badly later.
The doctor showed up then. One look at Angelina and his expression turned grim. "We need to get her back to the OR stat! All her stitches have been torn apart. What happened here?"
"One of your hospital's fine volunteers broke protocol and let someone in the room without a visitor's badge!" Logan snapped.
"Did you do that to him?" the doctor asked.
"Of course not!" Logan glared at the man on the floor. "I actually think Angelina did."
The nurses were moving the bed toward the door, one frantically trying to reinstall her I.V. line as they nearly jogged the bed out of the room and down the hall.
"Well, you stay here and deal with that. I'll take care of the patient." With that, the doctor jogged off after the group heading to the operating room.
"Oh, I'll take care of him all right," Logan muttered, murder in his words.
It took all of his self-restraint to stand by while medical professionals dealt with the man's injuries. As soon as the man was in a bed, Logan slapped the cuffs on him with a vulgar feeling of satisfaction that almost embarrassed him.
Thirty minutes later, Logan stood by the bed of witness protection agent Jack Mulholland, trying very hard not to pummel the man. With a bandage on his head and handcuffs on his wrist, the man looked small and pathetic despite his large stature. Not at all the way Logan expected a federal agent to be and definitely not a fair fight.
Once Angelina was out of the room, chaos had ensued. Security officers who had never before dealt
Witness Protection (Defenders of Love Book 1) Page 15