“Are you telling me that the guy who ran you off the road walked into the water and shoved something at you while you were stuck behind the wheel?”
She nodded, her breath ragged. “It was like he wanted to make sure I couldn’t get out.” A tear trickled alongside her nose.
Gabe squeezed the palm of her hand, careful not to hurt her fingers, needing to rescue her again. “Look at me, Kelsey. You’re not in that car anymore. No one’s going to hurt you again. Come on—look at me. I’ve got you now.”
She did, her eyes bleak. Swallowing hard, she whispered, “I drowned, Gabe. My car filled up with the river and... and... I drowned. It hurts to breathe water. Did you know that? It burns. My head pounded like it was going to blow up. I couldn’t get my harness off, and then all I could think of was Alex. I’d join him. I’d lie beside him in the cemetery forever, only...”
Gabe’s heart lurched in his chest. He already knew what she was going to say.
“He’s not there,” she whined, lifting her bandaged hands to her lips, already pinched into a tight line. “I know I saw him at the hospital that day, but...”
What was left of Gabe’s heart melted at the anguish pouring out of this fragile woman. She choked on a sob before she could continue. “How do you think I got out of my car, Gabe? Do you know?”
Hurriedly, he pulled his cell phone out of his jeans pocket and brought up the pictures he’d taken at the scene, thankful for the reprieve. “Yes, ma’am. I can show you that. Somehow, the guy must’ve hit your car hard enough to deploy the airbag. See the airbag and the seatbelt? See how they’re cut? Unless you’re packing a sharp knife, the evidence speaks for itself.”
Wait a minute. Gabe snapped his mouth shut, rethinking what he’d just said. It didn’t fit with her version. “Do you remember the airbag inflating?”
“No. It didn’t. I kept expecting it to, the way he rammed into me with his SUV, but it never did.”
And yet it had. Anger clenched Gabe’s shoulder muscles. The bastard. Was that why he’d broken Kelsey’s window and shoved a metal bar at her? Was he crazy enough to try to activate the airbag after the fact, thinking it would inflate and keep her or her body trapped? How dumb was this guy? And yet it had worked. The bastard had walked right into the river to make sure she died. So what had stopped him?
Gabe stowed his internal rant. Kelsey didn’t need to hear what he was thinking, not until he had solid facts. “The bottom line is that someone got to you in time. Whoever that person was, he cut the airbag and sliced the seat belt to get you out.”
“Oh,” she said, blowing out a deep sigh. “I’m glad you have pictures. That helps.”
“Why?”
Kelsey studied him for a moment before she answered. “It really was Alex,” she whispered furtively. “I know it was. I saw him. At least, I think I did.”
Gabe didn’t know how to respond. She’d said this same thing when he’d found her in Olsen’s home.
Mark thought Kelsey was simply overcome with grief and doing everything she could to avoid reality. Gabe just didn’t see the eyes of a crazy woman staring back at him. If anything, she looked hopeful, as if entreating him to accept the unimaginable fact that Alex still walked the earth and arrived just in time.
God, if it were that simple. Gabe of all people wanted to believe the man whose life he’d tried desperately to save was still alive. Maybe then he could draw a deep breath without feeling guilty for it. Maybe then he could sleep without waking up in a cold sweat, scared that the life-saving compressions he’d performed had only worked the bullets deeper into his boss’s chest. Scared he was the one who’d really killed Alex.
“Let’s go back to the river for a second,” he said quietly. “Do you remember anything after you... drowned?” Smart move, Cartwright. He wanted to bite his tongue off for asking such a stupid question, but speaking with Kelsey was a walk through a minefield. “I mean, tell me why you think you saw Alex. What did you see?”
She closed her eyes. “Nothing. It’s more like a feeling, like when he held me when I was sick. Like he was mad and sad all at once.” Kelsey clutched his hand tighter in her pick-up-sticks fingers before she opened her eyes and whispered, “I’m sure, Gabe. Alex was there in that home with me. He is alive.”
“Then he’s got some explaining to do, doesn’t he?”
She let go of his hand, and damn it, guilt crawled up inside of him. He hadn’t answered as she’d hoped. He could tell by the way she bit her lip and studied him.
He pulled her car keys out of his pocket. “Oh, yeah, here. These are yours. Your car’s still at the sheriff’s impound lot. As soon as Mark can, he’ll have it towed to The TEAM’s garage so the guys can check it over themselves.”
She took one look at Alex’s picture and held it to her heart. “Thanks.”
He changed the subject yet again—anything to keep her from breaking down. “Can you tell me anything about those three days you were missing? What do you remember?”
“Nothing. All of a sudden, you and Zack pounded on the door, and I woke up in someone else’s house. Whose was it, anyway?”
“An older couple named Olsen. Mark contacted them. They weren’t too happy you were in there, but they’re not pressing charges.”
“But Gabe.” Her eyes narrowed. “I just thought of something else. When you found me, I was in my own clothes, but they were clean, weren’t they? Someone washed them for me.”
Say what?
“Are you sure?” That didn’t make sense. “I mean, look at you. You’re all banged up. You’re sick with pneumonia. Are you sure they were clean and not—”
“Not what, Gabe? Dirty and grungy and still wet?” she asked, a bit of a snap to her voice.
Kelsey seemed to be drifting between victim and survivor mode right now, one minute ready to cry, the next sounding a little like—Alex. “I know what I was wearing that morning. Someone cleaned and changed my clothes. Ask Shelby. She’ll tell you what I had on that morning. It was the same thing I was wearing when you found me. Only clean. Alex must have done that for me. Who else would have? It’s a clue, Gabe. He wants you to know he was there. Please believe me.”
“I do,” he insisted. “The police will want to hear what you just told me and I’ll chat with Sullivan as soon as she comes back. Don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of this. You should rest now.”
Kelsey leaned back onto her pillow, her face drawn and pale. “I’m tired of resting. I’m tired of everything, but most of all, I’m tired of no one believing me.”
He diverted the downward tempo of the conversation. “I’ve been by your house to feed your dogs. Whisper and Smoke will be happy to see you again.”
“They’ll be happy to see Alex, too.”
Gabe shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Without a doubt, every conversation with Kelsey would lead back to her dead husband. For the first time since meeting her, Gabe almost wished Nurse Sullivan would return.
Chapter Eight
“She won’t stay in the hospital any longer,” Libby whispered to Mark before they entered Kelsey’s hospital room. “It’s been four days. She wants to go home.”
“Not going to happen,” Mark replied, even as he pasted a smile on his face and pushed the door open. This woman was on her way to a safe house out of the country, if he had anything to say about it. France, maybe. Or Japan. Whether she knew it or not, she’d become the heart of The TEAM, and it just plain couldn’t function without its heart.
Alex might not have bequeathed her with the business side of the elite covert surveillance company, but Mark intended to remedy that soon. Legally. Once and for all. Undercover operator or not, Kelsey would soon become part owner, if in name only. Harley and David agreed. They wanted to keep her close to the only family she knew.
Taylor and Izza were about finished with their initial rundown on the gang of ten. The FBI hadn’t released the crime scene across the street yet, but Mark had no doubt that was imminent, and the sheri
ff’s department had taken Kelsey’s story seriously instead of brushing it off as hysteria. A hint of normalcy just might be around the corner.
Gabe lifted out of his chair as Mark and Libby entered. “Hey, Mark. Hi, Libby. How are things?”
“Better now that Connor and Rory hauled Kelsey’s car into our garage this morning. They’ll give it a thorough onceover. Where’s Zack?”
“Right behind you,” he answered, one big hand splayed on the door, the other holding a paper cup of coffee. “I went out to grab my favorite girl a good brew. Here you go, Kels.”
She accepted the covered Starbucks cup, but her gaze remained on Mark. “I want to go home.”
Damn. She went straight for the throat. Her request melted Mark’s heart. Despite the determination in her voice, everything about her spoke of loss, from the missing sparkle in her eyes to the once shiny hair she’d pulled back into an I-could-care-less ponytail. All the more reason for her to stay.
“Sure. As soon as you’re ready. I’ve got a few safe houses where you can recuperate. Two on the beach in Hawaii. Would you like that?”
“No, Mark. I said home. I don’t need oxygen anymore. I’m getting better. I want to leave today.”
Gabe stared at the floor between his boots, not saying a word. Zack was unusually quiet, too. They had to have known this was coming.
“Kelsey, I’m sorry, but I can’t risk taking you back to your place. It’s too dangerous.”
“But my dogs are there. Besides, it would be just like a safe house. Gabe and Zack will be with me, won’t they?”
“Of course, but it’s not the guards that make a safe house, Kelsey. You know that. It’s the secrecy of the location. Whoever targeted you knows exactly where you live and how to get you to do what they wanted.”
Her gaze dropped to the cup in her hands. “I still want to go home.”
This wasn’t going well. Libby stood silently at Kelsey’s bedside. Gabe and Zack weren’t much help either, not speaking up, as they should’ve done.
“Harley and Judy had their twins today,” he said, hoping to shift the conversation.
“Oh?” Kelsey looked right through him, the joyous news another tidbit she couldn’t seem to comprehend, or perhaps she didn’t want to. She rattled her splintered fingers on the paper cup. The silence in the room stretched. At last she said, “That’s nice.”
“I’d really rather you were in one of our safe houses, Kelsey.”
“Home, Mark. God, you can’t take everything away from me.”
Ouch. Low blow.
“We’ll keep her under lock and key,” Zack offered. “Besides, she lives close to the office. We’ll set up so many security cameras in the neighborhood, it will feel like you’re right there with us.”
Gabe never said a word, just lifted his head and met Mark’s gaze with those piercing green eyes that declared he’d give everything to protect this woman.
“Am I the only smart one here?” Mark asked, on the verge of relenting.
“Not so,” Libby spoke up. “But you are the only one who can keep Kelsey safe wherever she wants to be, and she wants to be home.”
Aw, shit. Logic.
Mark growled. He had no legal right to override Kelsey’s wishes. He’d just hoped he could’ve talked some sense into her. “Then Libby and I will take you home first thing in the morning, but if you get so much as one prank phone call, I’m moving you to the moon whether you like it or not.”
Mark leaned in to give her a gentle hug, but Kelsey’s breath caught at his small act of kindness. She pulled herself into his neck, and he couldn’t let her go. One trembling arm circled him. He held on, careful not to bump her fingers or squeeze her ribs too tightly.
“I miss him,” she sobbed.
He closed his eyes against his own tears. “Me, too. We all miss him, honey.”
She gulped. “Besides, he might... he might be looking for me, and I don’t want to miss him. Just in case he comes back, I mean.”
So that’s what this is about. Kelsey still believes. That damned anonymous tipster needed to come forward and admit to saving her. Only that would put Alex to rest, once and for all.
Smart or not, Mark bowed to her command. “Then why wait? Let’s get you released and on your way home right now. Are you ready to go?”
As quickly as they could get her physician to agree, Mark and Libby took Kelsey home. He sent Zack and Gabe on ahead to ensure sufficient security was in place prior to her arrival. Libby contacted Shelby so she’d be ready and waiting.
Kelsey walked as if she were a much older woman to her front door. Mark followed with her overnight bag, and another full of prescriptions and all the medical supplies the hospital sent with her.
Zack and Gabe stood in the carport, waiting. They’d driven their own vehicles and had completed a thorough security sweep of the neighborhood by then.
“Are you two ready for twenty-four-seven duty?” Mark asked on his way into the house.
“No different than the Corps,” Zack answered.
“I’m just about to walk the perimeter. It won’t take long. You want to come with and see for yourself?” Gabe asked.
“No. Go on ahead. I trust you guys. You’ve done enough deployments.”
By the looks of the place, Nurse Sullivan had taken charge inside. She’d cleaned the house, placed boot trays at the front door and cleaned the windows, judging the way they gleamed. Nice touch.
The moment Kelsey crossed her threshold Shelby took her arm and assisted her to the couch. “Welcome home.”
“Ah, it’s good to be here.”
Mark nodded for Libby to follow him into the kitchen. “Is this in any way a good idea?” he asked once they were out of earshot. “One good breeze and she’ll blow away, and did you see the way she looked down the hall? She expected Alex to be here waiting for her. She’s so broken. God, she looks like she’s been in a featherweight brawl and lost in the first round.”
“It takes time,” Libby answered gently. “She’s still in the denial phase. She’s not thinking clearly right now.”
“She reminds me of Harley. Neither of them is thinking right.””
Libby slid her arm around Mark’s waist while they commiserated together. “Maybe now that the babies are born, he’ll settle down.”
“He did sound more like himself when I talked with him this morning.” Mark pulled his wife close as he stared at the frail woman in the next room. Her splinted fingers sat like crossed pencil sticks on her lap, but at least she’d stopped peering down the hall.
How sad. Once again she had to deal with the disappointment of coming home to an empty house. Mark couldn’t begin to imagine the depth of losing his wife to natural causes, but there sat Kelsey, dealing with the murder of her beloved.
Never in a million years would he have used that word to describe Alex, but that’s exactly what he had been to Kelsey. Her knight in shining armor. Damn it to hell. Fairy tales aren’t supposed to end like this.
Mark placed a kiss on Libby’s cheek. “She does look happier.”
“You’ve got two of your best men on the job. Zack and Gabe will take good care of her. Shelby, too.”
“Then let’s go. I’ve got to get back to work.”
Libby gave Kelsey one last hug on her way out the door. “Shelby’s here to help with your morning shower and meds, but call me if you need anything, okay? I’m only a minute away.”
“I will,” Kelsey promised. “It’s nice to be home, Mark. I feel better already. Thank you.”
He gave her one last look from the front door. Shelby had taken Kelsey’s overnight bag to her bedroom while Zack studied the newly installed video camera feeds on his laptop.
Gabe had already returned from one of many perimeter walks he’d no doubt be making. He sat with Kelsey, chatting up the benefits of Whisper and Smoke, her two EOD dogs now turned into fierce watchdogs. Between them and all the other safety precaution Zack and Gabe had taken, Kelsey was in damned go
od hands.
And paws.
Kelsey might live in a dinky house, but her bedroom and adjoining bath were opulent. It might not explain why Kelsey still lived there, but it helped knowing she wasn’t simply content to live in a low-income neighborhood, squalor by any other name.
Whoever had done the remodeling work had enlarged the master bedroom and added an oversized and very lavish bathroom, complete with sunken tub and a glassed-in shower stall. The black tile walls and floor accented the white porcelain tub, sink, and commode. Seashells and candles lined the edge of the tub. Rolled plush black towels rested in a peach-colored wicker basket beneath the frosted window. The room was an elegant mix of feminine and masculine tastes.
A cherry wood sleigh bed situated beneath the window dominated the bedroom. Sheer drapes completed the romantic ensemble. The walk-in closet offered the same balance of masculine and feminine, lined with two bars, both filled with clothes.
Shelby ran a fingertip along the row of expensive men’s suits. Instant appreciation rose within. The suit jackets lined the ‘his’ side in order by color, coordinating slacks on sturdy hangars alongside. A variety of colored dress shirts hung inside the closet door, a cedar shoe rack beneath.
Most closets smelled musty, but this smelled of cedar and men’s aftershave or cologne. She sniffed the pleasant fragrance wishing she’d had the chance to meet Kelsey’s husband. Alex Stewart must’ve been quite the well-dressed gentleman. He’d smelled good, too.
Shelby took extra care putting Kelsey’s few things away. Gabe had questioned her about Kelsey’s clothes, and now that she had the chance to really check Kelsey’s blouse, she agreed. She couldn’t tell by the jeans Kelsey had worn because they looked like any other pair of jeans, but the blouse had definitely been washed and presses. Maybe dry-cleaned, not at all the condition one would expect after a near fatal drowning.
Gabe (In the Company of Snipers Book 8) Page 8