by Lexi Blake
“So you’re not good enough for me, but you’re good enough for Nate?” Steph asked, sarcasm dripping.
“No, I’m not good enough for him, but I got no choice. I’ll make myself better. He’s my son and I got no choice but to change and be the kind of man he can be proud of. I ain’t leaving him. I ain’t gonna be my dad.”
Her eyes closed and when they opened, they were softer than before. “Of course I want you to be able to see him. You are his father.” She sighed and looked back to Liam. “All right. Let’s get this done. I need to find a place to stay tonight.”
“You’ll stay with me.” It was said in stereo. Brody hadn’t meant to be in tune with O’Donnell, but they managed to say the same thing.
Steph threw her hands up and strode out the door.
O’Donnell shook his head. “You’re in trouble, mate.”
Like he didn’t already know that.
* * * *
Steph eased into her chair and realized she’d made a horrible mistake. She hadn’t taken the empty chair between Charlotte Taggart and Adam Miles. She’d decided to sit across from them and that left a chair open on either side of her.
Not for long. Brody sat down beside her, moving the chair closer to hers.
Why did he have to look so damn good? When she’d run around the corner and nearly knocked into him, all she’d been able to think about was that he looked like safety and home all rolled into one gorgeous man package.
I ain’t leaving him. I ain’t gonna be my dad.
She wasn’t going to think about how easily her heart had softened. She’d heard him talking about how he would be a better man for Nate’s sake and much of her rage had drained.
He couldn’t love her, but if he could love their son, she had to give him the chance to. She had to try to at least be friendly with him.
Remy Guidry strode in with Riley Blade and Shane Landon at his back. “We’ve handled the police. Told them it was some prankster trying to pull one over on the doc. They were happy to let us deal with it internally.”
Because they had a million things to do. If they thought for a second it wasn’t serious, the police would move on to real problems.
Of course, they couldn’t know how real her problem had become.
“I don’t understand why I’m needed in this meeting.” Sadie was being herded into the conference room by a steely-eyed Liam.
She knew that look. They were in a whole lot of trouble.
“You’re here because I asked Li to invite you, Sadie.” Ian Taggart sat at the head of the table, leaning back and looking way more intimidating than he had when he’d been hoarding his sweets. There was no glint in his eyes now. The blue had turned an icy color. “Please sit down. We’re going to have a talk. You might not be my niece by blood, but you are family because Grace is my family.”
Sadie frowned and sank into the chair on the other side of Steph. “And I love my aunt and uncle.”
“Then why do you seem intent on giving them both freaking heart attacks? You do understand that I have to tell my brother what happened here today. I can’t get around it.” Ian stood, leaning over the table a bit like a cobra waiting to strike. “Coffee? You went after a known killer with two cups of frigging coffee?”
Damn that man was scary when he wanted to be. Even Sadie shrank back a bit.
“It was all I had,” Sadie replied.
“Where the hell was the damn pistol I made sure you knew how to use?” Ian asked.
She winced. “I didn’t take my purse because it’s heavy.”
Charlotte sighed. “That was the wrong answer, hon.”
“I’ll make sure your damn purse is easy for you to carry then,” Ian said. “We’ll go through it together. You and me. We can dump all the frilly girly shit. Or better yet, Remy, I believe Sadie will be joining you for afternoon workouts from now on. Pay special attention to her shoulders so she can carry her damn bag around.”
“Have ya heard the term too stupid to live, you two?” Li joined in, standing next to Ian.
This was what it meant to have an overbearing dad. Yeah, she hadn’t had one of those. Her dad had been laid back, allowing her mom to do most of the work. She’d had a mom who’d believed in logic and quiet discussion.
“I am not too stupid to live,” Sadie shot back, her former fear seeming to evaporate. “I knew exactly what I was doing. I snuck up on him and made sure he didn’t take Stephanie, and now you can totally ID him because he’s going to need medical attention. Unless one of the big bad boys managed to catch him.”
There was a whole lot of silence from the boys.
Li and Big Tag looked at each other for a moment and then Ian sighed.
“Adam, start checking the ERs.” He pointed a finger Sadie’s way. “You don’t get caught without a gun again. I am responsible for you until your uncle can marry you off. I’m helping him find a list of qualified candidates and everything.”
“That’ll be the day,” Sadie replied, more chipper now. “Now, it’s after hours and I have my own things to take care of. I’ve already typed up a whole report on how everything went down and I think you’ll find that it’s more detailed than anyone else’s. So I think I was good in the field.”
“Absolutely not.” Ian shook his head in pure horror. “I am not telling my brother that I made his niece an operative.”
She stood up and straightened out her skirt. “Someday. Now, I have work to do. Let me know if you need anything else.”
Sadie winked her way before she walked out.
Ian slumped into his seat. “That girl is going to kill me. It was easier when Grace was here. She ran the office and didn’t once try to take out the bad guys all on her own. I don’t understand this generation.”
Charlotte smiled. “I view it as practice for our own girls. They’ll be way worse than Sadie. Now that the men have stopped yelling, are you all right, Steph?”
“I’m fine.” Except for the fact that her biggest mistake was sitting beside her.
Could she trust him with Nate? It wasn’t Brody’s fault that he couldn’t love her. She had to throw away all her anger with him when it came to their son. He hadn’t known. He’d been a bastard, but he seemed to want to know Nate.
Could she leave Nate with him while she hid? She was worried about Nate being around her, though the idea of being apart made her heart hurt.
“I’m glad, but you can’t do that again,” Charlotte said. “I understand that before we believed the situation might be fluid, but we have solid evidence now and I have to ask you to reconsider your position. There is a hefty bounty on you on the Dark Web.”
Her stomach churned but she managed to stay upright. This asshole was offering people money to take her out? Had they put Nate’s life up for sale, too? It seemed surreal. Even with what had happened this afternoon, it was hard to reconcile with reality. “For my head?”
“Not bloody likely.” Brody’s hand slid over hers, warming her skin. “You need to understand no one is going to allow that to happen.”
She forced herself to pull away when all she really wanted was to crawl up into his lap and wrap herself around him and beg him to save her, to save their son. But that was a reality she’d accepted long before.
Ian Taggart leaned forward, his elbows hitting the table. “The good news is they want you alive.”
“I think he wants to torture me himself.” And not the fun torture. No, this would be pain and horror and eventually death.
Did she deserve that? Had the universe merely granted her a reprieve from the pain she deserved for that night when she’d taken lives instead of saving them?
“I don’t think that’s his point. When I talked to the bastard he said Steph had something he wanted and he was willing to let Nate go if she came in,” Brody said. “He wanted to bargain with her. Now that doesn’t mean he won’t kill her. I won’t have her used as bait or a bargaining chip.”
He might say that, but she had to seriously con
sider it. It wouldn’t do a lick of good to mention it here though. “I don’t know what they think I have to give them.”
“That’s what we need to figure out.” Ian sat back. “I’m hoping that finding out the bastard’s name will help point us in the right direction. We’ve got a few feelers out on the Dark Web. We’ll see if we can get someone talking.”
“I’ve already pulled CCTV footage. Hopefully we’ll get a face from our would-be kidnapper today if he chooses not to seek medical attention. But I do have a couple of questions that might help. Did the man you were working on pass anything to you?” Adam asked. “Did he say anything at all?”
“He was unconscious when he was brought in,” she said, her voice going a flat monotone. She hated thinking about this. Hated everything about it. When she closed her eyes she could see the boss’s face, the cruel hard glint in his eyes as he promised to end her. “He had a GSW to the upper right quadrant. I was forced to resection part of his liver and take out his spleen. The operation took approximately three hours. The patient required three liters of blood. Luckily, I had some on hand. He was O positive. I keep that and A pos on hand at all times. He did have a cardiac arrest on the table, but I was able to get the heart functioning again. When I left him, the patient was critical but stable.”
“I’m not talking about the operation,” Adam said quietly. “I’m talking about before and after the operation. What do you remember about that? Can you tell us anything about him as a person and not a patient?”
She shook her head. “It all happened so fast. I don’t remember much. I remember a lot of yelling and one of my nurses was crying. I have two. One fled when she realized what was happening. It was protocol. She was responsible for the kids. We had a small group of pediatric patients. Luckily no one was critical. Uhm, two broken arms and a case of strep throat. She would have walked them to the nearest village. It’s about a mile east of the clinic. The children were mostly from that village. They should be safe.”
Adam was taking notes. “Excellent. We’ll see if we can find her and ask if she remembers anything. What happened to your other nurse?”
Anya Shadrova. God, what had happened with Anya? Guilt pressed on her. Stephanie had fled, terrified for her son. She’d spoken briefly to the young nurse from Ukraine before she got into the car, but Anya hadn’t left with them. She’d been all of twenty-four and filled with a need to do good in the world.
Had she gotten Anya killed?
“Anya wouldn’t leave the clinic. She stayed with me and assisted on the procedure. She remained with the patient to monitor him overnight. That was the last time I saw her. That was roughly two o’clock in the morning. I went to sleep and my security head woke me up. The patient had died and he thought we needed to get out of there very quickly. I don’t honestly know that I could have saved him even if I’d been in a modern facility.”
“What do you remember about the patient?” Charlotte asked.
She closed her eyes and tried to remember. She tried to envision him alive, but all she could see was that shell of a body on the table, the one she hadn’t been good enough to save. “He was male, mid- to late-forties. Dark hair. I estimate his weight at one hundred seventy pounds and his height as a little shy of six feet. His skin was a sallow, yellow color indicating jaundice and probably liver damage. I believe that was from the wound. I estimate he’d been shot over eight hours before he was brought to me.”
Charlotte held up a hand. “No. No medical terms. Remember everything you can. What was he wearing?”
Frustration swelled, a wave threatening to crest over and drown her. “Clothes. Bloody, torn up clothes.”
She hadn’t been sure of what color his shirt had been. It had been soaked in blood.
“Hey, I think she needs a break.” Brody leaned forward. “She’s had a hell of a day. Can we take this up tomorrow?”
“Will she be able to remember tomorrow?” Taggart asked, his eyes narrowed on Steph. “I think we’re dealing with a serious case of PTSD. Or she’s potentially blocking the information because it’s too painful. I’d like you to let Kai put you under hypnosis and walk you through the day.”
Walk her through? Walk her through what had been one of the most horrifying days of her life? She shook her head. “I’ll try to remember on my own.”
“Stephanie, we need to know everything we can,” Li said, his voice soft. “I’m worried something’s happened at the clinic.”
At her clinic? “He came after me. Why would he do something to the clinic?”
“Not the clinic, exactly,” Ian said. “It’s still standing, but drone footage shows something that concerned me. Our London office had a drone do a couple of flybys, and I found the pictures it took a bit disturbing.”
“What?” She had to see them. Tension twisted her spine, her hands curling into fists. What had happened? What had her cowardice cost someone else? “Do you have the pictures?”
“That’s not for you to worry about,” Li said.
Ian passed her his tablet. “Scroll through the footage. The photo that’s worrisome is at the end. The London office isolated the problem areas. Thanks for the heads up, Carter, but until the moment she fires us, this is an American op. I’ve already talked to Damon and he’s forwarding everything to me. As far as I’m concerned, you’re nothing more than a friend lending my client support.”
Brody had stiffened beside her. “I’m bloody well not a friend and you know it.”
Taggart said something else, but she was looking at the pictures on the tablet in front of her.
“You don’t have to look at those.” Li sat down beside her. “I can take care of this for you.”
She barely heard his words. She knew them though. Those words were filled with sympathy and took her back to that moment when she’d woken up in the hospital after the accident. Her mother had been there, promising her it wasn’t her fault. Not really. She’d killed two people and the third might not live, but it hadn’t been her fault. She’d been tired and distracted. That’s what her mother had told her over and over again, as though saying the words would somehow make her magically believe.
She’d heard the same tone in the police officer who’d arrested her. He’d explained that by law, since she had a small but discernable amount of alcohol in her system, he had to arrest her for DUI. In the state of New York, any alcohol level in a person under twenty-one years of age was considered a DUI. She’d barely registered, but the accident had gone from tragic mistake to something that could end her life then and there.
She’d heard it when Avery Charles had stared at her and then quietly come to some place deep inside that Steph had never understood. Some place that made Avery who she was.
So much sympathy when she hadn’t deserved any of it. It didn’t matter the whys or hows. It only mattered that she’d been driving that car.
She flipped through the pictures until she got to one that showed an aerial view of the cabin her nurses shared. She recognized it because of the flowerpots on the side of the cabin. Anya had loved gardening and said she couldn’t live without flowers to brighten her day.
The whole place was eerily empty. No one walked down the dirt paths. No kids skipping in, looking for the candy Steph always kept for them in the pockets of her scrubs. No patients milling about or staff briskly walking to their next task.
It was empty.
Had they all fled? She wouldn’t be able to breathe until she got to talk to Anya, make sure she was all right.
She flipped through and this time the photo had been enhanced, the cabin bigger than before. It looked like the door was open, the inside of the cabin lost to the shadows.
She flipped again, the photo becoming grainier as the cabin came closer and closer.
And she realized what Ian Taggart had been talking about. What Liam hadn’t wanted her to see.
There was a shoe sticking out of the doorway. One tennis shoe. The photo was black and white, but she knew the shoe itse
lf was pink. She’d seen it many times in real life. Anya wore them because she was one of the girliest girls Steph had ever met. Even her tennis shoes had a hint of glitter to them.
Now one lay on its side and she couldn’t see enough to discern whether it was still connected to its owner.
Nausea threatened.
“Damn it, I told you not to let her look at those things,” Liam cursed. “She didn’t need to see that.”
“She needs to take this seriously,” Ian shot back. “She needs to understand that she can’t run off like she used to. She has to protect herself and that means following orders. Next time around, there won’t be a crazy girl with coffee to defend her.”
Brody took the tablet out of her hand and stared at it himself. “I can’t tell if that’s just a shoe or a body. You think that’s one of your nurses?”
Steph nodded. “I’m pretty sure it is. I don’t suppose she’s napping in her open doorway, and she wouldn’t have left a shoe behind. How many others died?”
“We don’t know that she’s dead,” Charlotte began.
But the truth was there in her sympathetic eyes. Anya was probably gone and Steph had left her there. Alfi had convinced her that the boss would show up at any moment and kill her baby. She’d made a choice in that moment, one that might have cost Anya her life.
So much of that day was a horrific blur. She didn’t want to remember.
“How many others?” She forced the question from her mouth again. When had her tongue gotten so dry? It was hard to talk.
“I don’t know,” Li replied. “But I’m going to find out. I’ve got a call in to a friend who’s out that way. He’s in Liberia with his wife, but I’m sure he’ll help us out. I’ll have him make his way to the clinic and report back. He’ll also go into the village and make sure we can find your other nurse.”
“I don’t want a friend of yours to walk into something he can’t handle,” she insisted.
“There’s very little Tennessee Smith can’t handle,” Li promised. “I also called Fain a couple of hours ago. The Agency’s interested if there’s a new player in that region. It’s actually fairly stable, and that’s why Fain is a bit worried. He wants to check it out, too, but we need that information from you. I need you to remember everything you can.”