“I’m here to ask a few questions only.”
Mia looked at her boss, tried to read him but couldn’t. “You actually believe that don’t you? You think you can separate out your sins like that. Launch an attack and then not take any responsibility for the results.”
The Congressman frowned. “The only thing I’ve done is look into a law-enforcement group about which I received a complaint. That is my job as a sitting member of Congress.”
She really wanted to throw up on him. “Spare me.”
“I did my job.”
“You tried to protect Steve Samson, an accused murderer.”
The comment had Ned looking at Walters. Ned had many faults. Because of his need for complete submission and obedience, he was a woman’s worst nightmare. But he lived by the badge and hated the idea of criminals going free.
His black-and-white view of crime had led him to commit a few offenses of his own, but he never saw it that way. If he had to beat out a confession or bend the truth to make a conviction stick, he did it. In his world, the accused didn’t have rights, didn’t deserve them.
Mia knew she could use Ned’s warped sense of justice against him. “You’ve been feeding Steve Samson’s attorney information and helping to get him off.”
Ned’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “Is that true?”
The Congressman pretended to wipe something off his sleeve. “Of course not.”
“Yes, it is.” She focused all of her energy on riling Ned up. “Why do you think he hates the Recovery Project team so much? They caught his friend and put him in jail.”
Bram held up his hand. “The source of my information about Recovery doesn’t matter since the information was correct.”
Ned took a step closer to Walters. She doubted the Congressman saw it or that it even registered he might be losing his muscle’s loyalty.
“What about WitSec?” she asked, hoping to hit on that piece of information that would make her former boss slip.
His face closed up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Rod Lehman. Glenna Reynolds and Penny Wain.” She continued to shift her wrists behind her. The rope cut into her flesh and warmth she knew to be blood spread over her fingers, but she kept pulling.
Ned was facing Walters now. “Who are those people?”
“None of your business,” the Congressman snapped.
The rope wouldn’t give no matter how hard she pulled, and she had to be careful there or risk letting Ned know what she was doing. “The good Congressman, your new boss, is involved in some nasty stuff, Ned. The kind of thing you hate.”
“What is she talking about?”
Bram finally focused on Ned. He screwed up his lips and shot him a look of disdain, as if Ned was nothing more than filth. “Why are you listening to her?”
“She seems pretty sure of her facts.”
“You idiot, she’s trying to upset you.”
And she was doing a good job. Mia could see it on Ned’s face. He’d moved to judgment. He was assessing Bram Walters and finding him wanting. Once Ned made that turn, there was no going back.
“Tell me about WitSec.” Ned aimed the gun at Bram.
Panic flared in the Congressman’s eyes for the first time since they had walked into the woods. “You idiot, you work for me.”
“I’d stop with the name-calling if I were you. Your power doesn’t extend out here.”
As the men argued, Mia looked around. She could make it to the rock entrance, but they’d see her and track her. She could run through the woods, but without transportation or hands to steady her body, she’d be at a significant disadvantage. She needed a miracle.
A twig crunched behind her. Heat brushed against her back. She could feel knees near her shoulders. She inhaled, trying to detect Holden’s familiar scent but she couldn’t. Every cell inside her willed Holden to walk out of the woods and touch her.
“Put the weapon down, Zimmer,” Caleb ordered.
Wrong man.
A rush of questions screamed to get out. She hoped that Caleb’s presence meant Holden was nearby, that he had survived and called for help.
Fear lingered, too. Him being here might mean Holden couldn’t. She tried to stand, to grab on to Caleb and beg him for answers, but her legs wouldn’t move.
At the sound of Caleb’s voice, Zimmer swung around. Bram followed a beat behind. Both men looked stunned to find someone else deep in the woods.
“Who the hell are you?” Zimmer asked.
“He’s one of the Recovery agents.” The Congressman didn’t look so smug now.
“Caleb Mattern.” He shifted to stand beside her. Caleb helped her to her feet and handed her a pocketknife to break through the rope. “Put the gun down, Zimmer. Walters, hands up.”
“That’s Congressman to you.”
“Not for much longer.”
“How did you find us?” she whispered. It wasn’t the question she wanted to ask, but it was the only one she could force out.
“We’ve been following Zimmer ever since he came after you at the condo.”
Caleb didn’t use Holden’s name. Didn’t reassure her he was okay.
All the pain she’d been pushing from her mind crashed right into her heart. She assumed she’d know if he was dead. She’d feel it run through her like a sword. Instead, her body went numb.
Bram swore under his breath. “Idiot. You led him right to us.”
Zimmer turned to Walters, not trying to hide the wild anger now. “I’m not going to jail over you.”
“You each have a gun.” The Congressman pointed at Caleb. “You’re probably a better shot, so shoot him.”
Like a dream, the rock opened and Adam stepped out. He came right out of the passage, but it looked as if he rose from out of nothing. “We have two guns.”
The Congressman went pale. “What the—”
“I’m not telling you again, Zimmer.” Caleb didn’t move. “Gun on the ground.”
“No, not like this.” Zimmer looked around at the other men.
Mia knew that face, knew that last drop of desperation. Her ex was a narcissist with an overinflated sense of self. He was the type who would try to shoot his way out of a situation rather than go to prison. That fall from public grace would be too much.
“Caleb, be careful,” she whispered.
He put a hand on her shoulder. “We’re good.”
Zimmer acted like a hunted animal now. He looked around as if trying to find a means to escape. “I am not going to prison.”
“Yes, you are.” The deep voice had them all turning.
She heard Holden’s voice and searched the horizon until she found him. She took in his battered face, then felt a hand push her to the ground. In a blur, she saw Holden move from behind the trees just as Caleb threw his body over her. Shots rang out through the woods. Dirt kicked up around her. Footsteps pounded. She heard shouts and a scream of fury.
A loud thump rumbled the ground in front of her. When she looked up, she saw the Congressman’s body right beside her, blood pouring out of his mouth and staining his shirt.
In another glance she watched Ned raise his gun in her direction and Holden shift his stance. A final shot blasted around her, then nothing. Silence fell over them.
It was a few more seconds before anyone said anything.
“All clear.” Caleb shouted the words.
She didn’t wait for him to move. She shoved him off and ran to the area she last saw Holden. He knelt on the ground next to Ned’s lifeless body with a gun still in his hand. Holden leaned back on his heels, his chest rising and falling on heavy breaths.
Seeing his faraway stare was all that stopped her from plowing into him. That and Adam’s firm hand. “Whoa.”
“Holden.” She approached him slowly, watching his gaze adjust to her being there.
“You’re okay.” Holden repeated the phrase four more times before his shoulders slumped.
“Holden?”
>
“He’ll be fine.” Adam put his body under Holden’s arm and lifted him to his feet.
She couldn’t help it. She ran her hands over his chest, looking for injuries. When she pulled a palm back, red stained her fingers. “He’s bleeding.”
Caleb wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Not from this.”
As if she cared about the timing. “Help him!”
Adam nodded. “We will.”
“Mia.” Holden reached out and ran his limp fingers down her cheek. “Don’t know how, but love you.”
Then he passed out.
Chapter Twenty
Holden stood next to the bed in Luke’s upstairs bedroom and tried to fight off the numbness in his limbs.
This wasn’t about the injuries. This was about the dragging in his head. He tried to put his thoughts together and understand all that had happened over the past few days, but his mind couldn’t grasp it.
They barely knew each other. There was no way Mia could have come to mean so much in such a short amount of time. It didn’t make sense.
In so many ways, they were wrong for each other. She liked to dissect actions and talk about feelings. He wanted to hide away and deal only with what was in front of him. That’s all he could handle.
But he wanted her. Every day and all the time. He turned to her when he woke and looked for her at the end of every hard moment. She made life better.
Seeing her in danger had sent a shot of energy ripping through him, wiped out all the pain and the knocking in his head. He had to get to her and destroy anyone who touched her. The emotions were raw and uncontrolled. For the first time in his life, he couldn’t hold back and hide his fears. They raged around him.
He didn’t know what they had, how she felt, but he wanted more. He knew, in her eyes, he was a broken man. Years before he walked into a cave a strong man and walked out too scared to go into a small space without breaking into a cold sweat. That wasn’t the kind of man a woman needed.
He opened the dresser drawer and then slammed it shut again, letting the hard bang vibrate through him.
A decent man would let her go, but he couldn’t do it. What ran through his mind were schemes and plans to bind her closer to him. If he could keep her there, he could work on being a better man. They could make love and he could heal. Eventually, maybe, she could learn to view him as something more than a potential client for her therapy practice.
And, yeah, he’d have to learn to deal with that, too. He’d grind his teeth and keep his mouth shut. Whatever it took to have a chance with her, he’d do. No matter the sacrifice or personal toll, he’d make it work.
He knew what a good woman could do for a man. He’d seen it with Luke and Claire. Holden craved that closeness, that connection. The chance his life could mean something again, that he could beat back the nightmares that haunted him, made the risk worthwhile.
Problem was he loved her. It surprised him, stunned him, but the crushing feeling wasn’t going away. If anything, it kept growing until it took over everything else.
Her. Them. Together. He had to figure out a way to make it work. Start with sex and build. He was a strategy man and he’d make this one work.
MIA WALKED INTO the bedroom she’d been sharing with Holden expecting to find him asleep, or at least resting. She’d settle for seeing him sitting down.
He was standing at the dresser, fiddling with something in the drawer. He had to lean one hand against the top to stay upright. Even then he looked crooked, with his shoulders dropped on one side and his body weight supported on one leg.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked.
When he looked up into the mirror and watched her close the door, a sexy smile edged the corner of his mouth. “Standing.”
“Funny man.”
“I’ve been lying down for hours.”
“Hour. One hour. Actually, more like thirty-five minutes.” She held up the fingers to highlight her point.
“I feel fine.”
He looked ready to fall over.
“I don’t believe that for a second.” She stopped beside him and glanced down to see what he found so important. Condoms.
When she looked at him again, he had the nerve to wiggle his eyebrows. “Well?”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“No.”
“You banged your head and sprained a wrist. You have broken ribs, and don’t tell me they don’t hurt because mine are only bruised and they’re sore.”
“My lower half works fine.”
She wasn’t sure what was going on. The man professed love to her in the minutes before he fell over and now was obsessed with sex. This was not a normal reaction. She’d been through the textbooks and had never seen this.
She thought about having Adam check Holden for a head injury. “You are going back to bed.”
“That fits in with my plans.”
She turned him toward the mattress and grabbed the condoms out of his clenched fist. “Lie down.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She threw the packets over her shoulder and as far away from him as possible. “Not going to happen.”
“You sure?”
Man, he was tempting. “Absolutely.”
He frowned up at her like a sad little boy. “Killjoy.”
Maybe, but she noticed that as soon as his back hit the mattress, his eyes went shut on a sigh. He leaned his head against the pillows and slowed his breathing.
Exhaustion and pain. She knew the signs.
They’d rushed him back to the house so Caleb could administer aid. She tried to get Holden back in the car and to the hospital but he yelled loud enough to wake the neighbors in the next county.
He fought them on everything and insisted he was fine. Tried to wipe the blood away and cover the winces when he moved.
The man had lost his mind. “Sex? Really?”
He made a face. “We work well together in bed.”
That was male code for something. She wasn’t sure for what.
“Tell me what’s really going on here.” She stood over him and tangled her fingers with his.
“Nothing.”
“I’m not leaving until you say.”
He smiled. “That’s not the incentive you think it is.”
“Holden.”
His eyes opened as his lips went flat. The blues focused on the ceiling instead of her. “I almost lost you.”
Then she got it. Men. Sex was a way of connecting. He was trying to reinforce the bonds. Women went for words. Men loosened a bra.
She crawled in next to him and let out a little sigh when he wrapped his good arm around her. “You saved me.”
“If Adam and Caleb hadn’t been there…” He rubbed his eyes with his palm.
Guilt was kicking his butt. She knew him well enough to know the injuries took something from him. He had to be in control and handle every situation just right. Having her taken away from him in that garage pushed something inside of him.
It was an unrealistic burden for anyone. Holden just refused to see that.
She sat up so that her mouth hovered right over his. Before she could say anything, he leaned up and kissed her. Not a hot kiss moving toward passion. This was tender and loving.
All at once she understood what was really happening here. He was a man who had experienced unspeakable tragedy in the past and closed off his heart. In the woods tonight, in the heat of danger, he opened his soul again. He told her he loved her. She’d been full of hope ever since.
She smoothed her hand down his T-shirt. “Do you remember what you said to me before you passed out?”
He stayed quiet for the longest time. She was about to ask again when she felt a small shift underneath her.
“Yes.” His simple word came out strong and clear.
Without looking up, she knew he was staring at her. “Why does it scare you so badly?”
“You can’t turn off the psychologist, can you?” It wasn’t del
ivered with his usual scathing tone whenever he got to the topic. The words sounded more like a conclusion.
She sat up and balanced her upper body over him with an arm on either side of his chest. “It’s who I am.”
“Then why aren’t you practicing right now?”
The memory of Ned’s face came rushing back. Holden had killed him. One shot and Ned went down. She knew Ned didn’t deserve her pity or remorse. Still, the idea that someone she once cared about, who played such a large role in who she was, was gone left her chilled from the inside out.
“I explained that. My instincts were off. I knew that after the Ned situation.”
“That’s an excuse.”
She was about to deny it, then stopped herself. “I guess that’s true.”
“You’re tougher than you give yourself credit for.”
She kissed Holden on the nose. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
His palm brushed up and down her arm. “I’m serious.”
“I can see that.”
“You’re letting Ned have a hold over you.”
“I’ve moved on.”
“Then don’t let him take your career. If you want to do therapy, do it.”
The idea sounded so easy. Maybe he did steal more than her pride and self-esteem. Maybe she let him take something bigger. For the first time in months, it also sounded appealing. She missed the one-on-one with patients. She made a difference to a few people. Losing that had taken a part of her.
“Maybe.”
Holden shrugged. Actually blushed a little. “You can always do profiling for the team. You know, keep the skills fresh.”
The thought made her smile. “Can you see working with me every day?”
“Yes.”
The possibilities spread out in front of her. All those doors that had closed creaked back open. She wasn’t ready to push them and walk through or even knock, but the world wasn’t as shut off and impossible as it had been when she drove that car through Holden’s front door.
He gave her that. He never judged her decisions or doubted her. He listened, protected, enticed and now loved.
She’d never been so grateful for a car accident.
“I love you.” She rubbed her finger over his lips.
Guns and the Girl Next Door Page 15