“No, he wasn’t. We’ve got all of them.”
I hesitated. “Where are Ethan and Jack?”
“They are safe. They’re with the other agents.”
“Are they in trouble?” I felt sick to my stomach and not because of the excruciating pain in my shoulder. I had no idea what happened since I saw Ethan and Jack running into the woods with their guns at the ready. I was sure they had permits for the guns, so that wasn’t an issue. But there could be dozens of other violations they could be charged with.
“We need to get you to the hospital right away.” Damn Drasco. He wasn’t going to change the subject so easily.
“Stop avoiding the answer. You want my cooperation on this case? Then help me out here,” I said sternly.
That got his attention. He looked sharply at me.
“I will testify, but Ethan and Jack go free, no matter what they did. Otherwise forget it,” I hissed. My shoulder hurt so badly, I wanted to moan in pain. But I wouldn’t. I had to stay strong, at least on the outside.
“Okay.” He nodded.
“Promise me!”
“I promise,” he said solemnly.
I heard voices and pounding feet. A small army of federal agents ran between the trees. I sagged down onto my back. The stars twinkled in the dark sky. Nothing was different about that view. It was as I’ve always remembered it. No matter if I was fourteen, sixteen, or twenty-three—it always looked the same. That thought was somehow reassuring. I liked the fact that some good things stayed unchanged.
Chapter Twenty Eight
ETHAN
“Hey.” I kicked Jack’s boot and grinned at him.
We sat on a fallen log, side by side, watching the feds handcuff all the gang members.
Jack’s eyes flicked to me and he returned my grin. “Why are you smiling, idiot?”
That made me chuckle. “Why are you, moron?” Yeah, we were okay.
Cornell told me that Drasco had Lisbeth in his care. I asked him if she was hurt, but he didn’t know. I suspected he decided not to tell me, and that made me concerned. I wanted to go to her right away, but the feds insisted that Jack and I talk with them first. They wanted the first-hand information on what exactly happened here before their arrival.
I took my cell phone out and turned it around in my hand. It was useless. I was a dumbass—I didn’t have Lisbeth’s phone number. I’ve never gotten it from her. Cornell walked up to us and squatted down. But before he uttered a word, I quickly asked, “What’s Gloria’s cell phone number?”
He took his phone out and scrolled through then turned the screen toward me. I punched the number on my phone, stood up, and walked away. The phone rang. She wasn’t picking up. A generic recording informed me that this subscriber is unavailable and proceeded to instruct me to leave a message. I hung up. Damn, I forgot she rarely kept that phone on, and now especially, after I told her the phone was tapped, she wouldn’t turn it back on.
I had to know how she was, to see for myself. I had to hear her voice and look in her eyes. I wanted to hold her close. God, I missed her...
I paced back to where Cornell and Jack sat together, talking. Jack was answering Cornell’s questions.
“Call Drasco. Please. Get Gloria on. She’s not picking up her cell phone,” I said to Cornell.
He glanced at me from over the notebook where he was taking notes based on Jack’s responses. “Sure.”
For a moment I thought he was about to give me his surveillance microphone, but he pulled out his cell phone, dialed, and passed the phone to me.
I went back to where I stood, away from everyone to get some privacy while talking with Lisbeth.
“Cornell?” the voice on the other end asked. He was probably puzzled about why the other agent used his cell phone and not the radio.
“It’s Ethan McCoy. I’m calling from Special Agent Cornell’s cell phone. He’s right here with me.”
“Okay.”
“Is Gloria there?”
“One moment.”
“Ethan!” she shouted to the phone. “Where are you? Is everything okay?” There were too many emotions mixed in her voice for me to decipher. I was just happy to hear her. She was alive.
“I’m fine. I’m coming to you. Cornell said you’re not in the cabin. Where can I find you?” I didn’t understand my own reaction. I wanted to run to her, to get to her immediately. Nothing would stop me now. Nothing mattered.
“We are by the cabin, actually. The doors are locked, but we are right here. Please come?” The last two words sounded like pleading. They melted my heart.
“On my way,” I breathed into the phone. I hung up and tossed it back to Cornell.
“Hey, bro!” Jack hollered after me.
I turned mid-step. He held the key to Ryley’s cabin. I caught it with one hand.
The cabin’s lights shone in the distance, between the closely packed trees. I ran, weaving between the tree trunks, oblivious to the bushes slapping my face and body with their branches. I was in high-alert and focus mode, concentrated on one target only: get to Lisbeth, fast.
First, I saw a group of agents by Ryley’s cabin. I quickly scanned the area, looking for her. She was in the center, surrounded by a few feds. I squeezed past them. Drasco and a female agent sat on the ground with Lisbeth. There was a makeshift dressing on Lisbeth’s upper arm. She was hurt. That made me furious. Someone hurt her. Who?
I was at her side in an instant. Drasco nodded to me, and I nodded back in acknowledgement, but before I could ask about her injury, she quickly wrapped her good arm around my neck and buried her face in my shoulder. I held her tight, careful not to touch the wounded spot. I slid my hands down her back and up again. She wasn’t crying or trembling. She just sat there, clutching onto me. I liked it. I actually liked it a lot.
My heart pounded when I whispered in her ear, “What happened? Who hurt you?”
She didn’t answer at first, only took a long, slow breath. Her chest expanded, pressing onto mine. There was nothing erotic in it, nothing that would evoke my regular reaction to a woman. I didn’t get hard, nor did I immediately think of sex. What I felt was so much more. I cared for Lisbeth, far more than I’d ever cared for anyone before. She was safe now, but I didn’t stop wanting to protect her. That need was stronger than any other need I’d known.
“I’m tired. I want to sleep,” she said quietly.
“I’m sure that can be arranged.” I smiled in her hair.
“No. I want to sleep next to you. In your arms.”
I could barely think straight. That simple statement sent a wave of longing through me. My arms closed tighter around her. I touched my lips to her warm neck and kissed it. “You can sleep in my arms as long as you want.”
She pulled away a little, just enough to look in my eyes. I couldn’t hold it anymore. My breathing grew labored, and I was lost in her. Her lips parted, and it took all my resolve to restrain myself from kissing her now in front of all these people. But I wanted to. I wanted nothing more than that.
The paramedics came, and the female agent who sat next to Lisbeth before returned and said, “Ms. Glass, let’s take care of that arm.”
I whispered to Lisbeth, “I’m not done with you, but I’m forced to take a rain check.”
She smiled, closing her eyes, hopefully hiding her disappointment. I was disappointed too, but we had to wait.
Keeping one arm around her back, I looked at two paramedics who kneeled down by Lisbeth. “I’m Captain Ethan McCoy, PFD.”
“Oh.” The woman paramedic beamed at me. She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, and said sweetly, “Karen Torn, North Lincoln Fire and Rescue. This is Ron Smith.” She gestured to her colleague. “What do we have here?”
I wasn’t interested in talking with her, which was completely out of character for me. That paramedic girl was really good looking, and I could sense her interest in me. A lot of interest. It wouldn’t take much to get her to come back to my cabin right after he
r shift ended. But I only had eyes for one woman: Lisbeth.
Drasco answered her question, “A single gunshot. It seems the bullet penetrated and exited the muscle.”
A gunshot? A fucking gunshot? Lisbeth was shot? I wanted to punch someone, not once, not even twice, but just keep beating whoever until his fucking face turned into a bloody mess. “Who did that to her?” I demanded.
“One of those punks. He’s dead,” Drasco informed me.
That took care of the problem. Before I had a chance to find out who shot him, Lisbeth clasped my hand. She must have seen how furious I was. I looked at her, and my anger evaporated. Just like that. Instead, my throat closed with some unknown emotion.
“Gloria was extremely brave.” I heard Drasco’s voice. “The guy attacked her. He jumped on her back and knocked her down to the ground. But she managed to overtake him. When I arrived, he was the one on the ground, and she had a gun pointed at him.”
I watched Lisbeth. She quietly conversed with the paramedics. I noticed her jaw tighten in pain and her eyes squeeze shut, while they patched her up. She was going to the hospital, no matter what she said. I knew she would object. Just knew it. But I wouldn’t have it. She had to be stitched up and examined for any other injuries.
I turned to Drasco and motioned with my head for him to step aside with me for some privacy. I kissed Lisbeth’s hand and said, “I’ll right back.”
I stood up and walked ten yards toward the water. Drasco followed.
We stopped. He cleared his throat. I put my hands in my pockets. The night air felt cool and fresh. A pleasant woodsy fragrance drifted over from the shore. The party boat was quiet, and I wondered if someone finally called the cops to stop that nonsense.
“Did you find another gang member? Vince?” I asked.
“Yeah, we did. Was that you? You cuffed him to that bush and gagged him?”
“Sure did.”
“Awesome job. Thank you.” He nodded curtly. “That simplified a lot of things for the Bureau.”
“I hope so. Did you question him?”
“Not yet. He’ll remain in our custody, though. We’re taking him to one of our locations.”
I didn’t care what location, so his air of secrecy simply washed over me. However, I wanted to know if they learned about Senator Kiersch. “You didn’t talk to him at all?”
“We will.” He sounded positive. Upbeat even.
I crossed my arms and looked back at Lisbeth, sitting in the same spot as before and watching us. I smiled at her. She was beautiful. I wanted to go to her, to hold her. I wanted her so much. But instead, I averted my eyes from Lisbeth and looked soberly at Drasco. “So you don’t know who’s behind all these crimes?”
Drasco’s features rearranged themselves from carefully polite to tense. “What do you know?”
“I pressed Vince to tell me. Have you ever heard of Senator Kiersch?”
His watchful eyes drilled into mine. “What exactly did you learn?”
“Senator’s kid was the one who murdered Gloria’s friend Helen. The same one you shot. His name was Ed.”
Drasco swore and turned away from me. He walked a few feet away, then turned around and walked back, frowning and deep in thought. He stuffed his hands in his pants pockets and slowly raised his eyes to me. They were still hooded by his brows. “That little asswipe I shot was a Senator’s kid?”
“Yeah, and an innocent girl’s rapist and murderer. What, you’re fucking remorseful, because he was some dirty politician’s son?”
He didn’t let me continue, “Do you understand what’s happening here?”
This time I cut him off, “I do. A Senator is desperately trying to cover up a gang rape, a murder, and the multiple attempts to kill Gloria. Oh, let’s not forget destruction of federal property and the murder of a few federal agents.”
That shut him up. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed the spot between his eyebrows with his fingers. “Fuck,” he whispered. “Fuck!” he said much louder, looking at the dark water.
“Yeah. No kidding.” I nodded in mocking assent. “Still having second thoughts about going after a big fish politician?”
He exhaled with force and wordlessly looked at me.
“I will let you stew on that problem.” I turned around to head back to Lisbeth. But a few steps away, I stopped and turned to face him. “I think Vince will testify. Just offer him your best protection. I suspect Lisbeth will do the same. But I can’t guarantee that she’ll freely go back into your program. If that’s even necessary now. She needs the best safeguarding there is. Can you offer it?”
He nodded. “Yes. Anything to keep her safe. I’ll personally make sure she’s taken care of.”
I walked back to him. “I won’t ask for a name, but I need to know the truth—do you know who your mole is?”
His eyes opened wide. Didn’t he expect to be confronted with that? I waited.
He nodded again, pressing his lips into a thin line. “We had a suspicion, but couldn’t nail the son of a bitch without definite proof. He gave it to us on a silver platter. With only three agents in the van, we narrowed it down. When the gang showed up here, there was no way he could deny that he tipped them off.”
“Okay then. Do you know if there are any other gang members who are still free?”
“We have all of them. The Bureau tried to get that group for over a year. We just didn’t know about the college guys until Helen’s murder. It’s possible they just recently joined this gang. All of them are now rounded up, and not just those few frat brats, but the others as well.”
“So Gloria is safe?”
Drasco’s eyes softened. “To the best of my knowledge, yes. But as I already promised to you, I will personally take care of arranging the best protection available for her.”
“I’ll remember that.” I walked back to Lisbeth.
She was on a stretcher and about to be carried off to the ambulance. Jack squatted next to her, together with Cornell. She was shaking her head, disagreeing about something. Jack noticed me and motioned to me to get to her. As if I wasn’t running already.
Lisbeth turned her face to me. One look at her sad, worried expression and I felt a stab of pain straight through my heart.
I kneeled on one knee next to her and took her hands in mine. “You need to go to the hospital, but I’m coming with you.”
Her face registered relief as if a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders. Careful not to touch her injured arm, I pressed her to me and whispered in her hair, “Did you think I’d let you go alone?”
She made a noise like a tiny squeak. Then her back shook. She was crying, and I wasn’t sure if these were the tears she’d held back, induced by all the horrors she went through, or if they were the tears of relief. But that didn’t matter, as long as I was privileged to hold her in my arms and protect her.
Chapter Twenty Nine
LISBETH
I’ve always hated hospitals. The smell, the lack of color, and everything else was driving me crazy. As soon as the good doctor stitched up my arm and gave me the clean bill of health, I asked Ethan to take me somewhere. Anywhere—just away from the hospital.
He was with me the entire time, even though the nurses tried to kick him out of the room and make him wait in the hallway. They didn’t care that he was a paramedic. Finally, I threatened that if they didn’t stop harassing him, I was going to stab each of them in the eye with Ethan’s knife. I even tried to grab it, but Ethan wouldn’t let me.
A short, very round nurse with rosy cheeks and a bad case of adult acne called hospital security. I called the FBI. Special Agent Drasco was waiting in his car right outside the building. He came in and straightened everything out, much to Ethan’s relief. I probably acted irrationally, but my nerves were shot, and there was no single reasonable thought left in my brain.
Ethan stuffed me into a wheelchair much to my chagrin.
“I can walk,” I pleaded, but he wouldn’t even listen.
&nb
sp; “Can you just let me do this for you?” he asked, exasperated.
“Fine.” I stared straight ahead while he pushed the wheelchair through the hallway, into the elevator, and then outside through the double sliding glass doors.
Special Agents Drasco and Cornell escorted us to the unmarked, black sedan. We slid into the back seat. Ethan enfolded me in his arms, pressing me close to him, and kissed the top of my head. I looked up at him and said, “Thank you. For everything.”
“Don’t mention it.”
I put my hand over his firmly-muscled chest. His heartbeat drummed against my palm. It was the most comforting feeling I knew. I leaned closer and pressed my cheek to where my hand was a moment earlier, wrapping my arms around his waist. A long, quiet sigh escaped me. I closed my eyes and listened to Ethan’s body. His breathing was slow and deep, and I tried to match my own breath to his. I felt his fingers gently slide over my hair and his lips caress my forehead. I wanted to stay like this forever.
I must’ve fallen asleep, because it surprised me when the car stopped.
“It’s time to go,” Ethan’s voice reverberated in his chest.
I sat up and looked around. We parked in front of a large, well-lit building. “Where are we?” I asked.
“The Nines Hotel in Portland. Two female agents will stay in a room directly across the hall from yours,” Ethan explained. “Drasco and Cornell are off to do the briefing with their superior. They will see you tomorrow.”
I looked at him, tensing up. “And you? Where are you going?”
He smiled. “I was hoping you’d let me stay in your room.”
I closed my eyes in relief and smiled back at him. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Ethan took me straight to the room. I guessed the booking was done over the phone while we drove here. I covered my head and upper half of my face with the hood of my jacket, just the way I’ve done since first being taken into the FBI witness protection program. Maybe the danger was gone, since I was told that all of the gang members were captured, but old habits die hard.
I walked into the room and gasped. It was a beautifully appointed suite, with a separate living room, one bedroom with a king size canopy bed, and nice furniture. The bedding looked luxurious, and the shower in the bathroom was large and equipped with two showerheads.
The XOXO New Adult Collection: 16 Full Length New Adult Stories Page 199