by Jo Leigh
The look she gave him should have done him in, but she didn’t let go. Her fingers dug into his thigh. “Swear to me that Tilda’s going to be safe.”
“Yes. She is. And so are you.”
That’s when the cabbie swore as another car, a black, souped-up Mustang with an engine that sounded like a jet’s pulled up on the other side of them, screaming against the metal barrier. The passenger window went down and a man leaned out, aiming a gun at their tires.
He fired, the shot muffled by the traffic noise.
Apparently, he’d missed.
The man raised his arm and pointed the gun directly at Ginny.
Parker shoved her down, hard, as the gun went off. He felt a jolt to his right shoulder as the cab jammed on the brakes, then peeled around the Mustang. The helicopter lowered so close it nearly landed on the Mustang’s roof.
Suddenly sirens seemed to be coming from every direction. The sound of another gunshot, this time not at them as far as Parker could tell, echoed inside his head like the roar of a Kodiak bear.
Underneath him, Ginny was crying, her eyes shut tight, and shaking so hard he thought she might come apart. He couldn’t hear her at all, but he could read her lips as she kept repeating her daughter’s name.
CHAPTER TWENTY
GINNY TRIED TO make sense of the chaos around them. FBI agents and local police had swarmed the area where the cab had finally stopped, a scrubby lot with more trash than grass. The many lights flashing from police and FBI cars made it even harder to think. Drivers honked their horns, impatient over being held up on the frontage road and on the highway above it.
This couldn’t be happening. She was a piano teacher from the suburbs, with a daughter, a few close friends and a lot of acquaintances. A woman who recorded dozens of television shows and movies that she never managed to watch. Who hadn’t dated in years, and honestly probably never would again.
Her gaze slid over to the ambulance just a few feet away. She could hear Parker grumbling at the paramedics, making such a fuss he reminded her of how Tilda behaved when she had to skip a summer party.
Tilda. She needed to call her, but she couldn’t yet. Not while her thoughts were still spinning and the fact that she’d almost been killed and that Parker had taken a bullet for her felt like some surreal dream.
Parker’s loud curse helped bring her back to reality.
She walked over to him and the paramedics. Both Blane and Erica, according to their name tags, seemed too young to be doing such a difficult job, but they also looked as if Parker’s rants didn’t faze them in the least. Ginny couldn’t even imagine the kinds of things they must hear.
“Sir,” Blane said, “you have to go to the hospital. You’ve been shot.”
“So what? The bullet went clean through.”
“And likely did some damage on its way out. There’s no other option here. We’ve already called it in.”
“All you need to do is bandage me up. I can’t stick around here—I have a business to run. As soon as I’m home, I’ll get it looked at.” Erica laughed. “Sure you will. Now stay still. I have to make sure you don’t die from blood loss before we get you to the ER.”
Parker opened his mouth, but before he could say another word, Ginny interrupted. “What’s wrong with you? You have to get checked out. Can’t it be enough that you didn’t die, two of those jerks are in custody and they’ve got the whole country on the lookout for the Mustang?”
Parker stared at her blankly, and she wasn’t sure if he was suffering from shock or if he just wanted her to disappear off the face of the earth.
Probably the latter. That bullet had been meant for her. He didn’t have to push her down. Cover her body with his own. She wasn’t even sure why he had. All of this was her fault. Seeing all that blood soaked into his white button-down shirt made her feel queasy. It wasn’t just the sight of the blood though. It was still overwhelming that he’d almost been killed because of her.
“He’s going to get checked out all right,” Erica said. “You might need surgery. Bullets don’t discriminate. They go through everything that’s in the way, and you just might need that shoulder to work again.”
Parker scoffed. “Then the doc in Fairbanks will make sure it does. Come on. I have dogs that need feeding. You don’t want something happening to my dogs.” He meant to sound threatening, but it didn’t work.
Her hands clenched tightly into fists, Ginny couldn’t take it another minute. “Will you be quiet and stop acting like such a baby? You’re not going to be able to fly anyway, so just man up and let the EMTs do their jobs.”
“If you think I haven’t flown with injuries worse than this, you’re delusional. I live in the woods. I have to fly to get anywhere.”
“Not if I tell the doctor you’re a pilot. Bet you won’t be cleared to fly without getting patched up first.”
His eyes blazed. “You have no right to interfere with my livelihood.” Ignoring the EMTs, he focused only on Ginny. “Haven’t you disrupted my life enough? My business partner’s ready to throttle me, never mind my clients. What more do you want from me? I had a nice life before you. I’d finally found some peace. I was content. Then I had to run into you again, and everything went to hell.”
If it hadn’t been for feeling utterly paralyzed, Ginny would have walked away and never looked back. She’d have flown straight out of New York to Boise and gotten her daughter. If they wanted a fight, she’d give them one.
Did he think she didn’t know all that already? Did he need to shout out all her failings to the world?
She watched as Erica finished with the bandage on his arm while Blane sneaked a seat belt around Parker’s waist and went up into the front to get behind the wheel. Erica had an IV drip at hand and stuck the needle into Parker’s vein a second later.
He yelped and tried to jerk his arm away, but Erica wasn’t having any of that. He glared at her, then at Ginny, then at Erica again.
She got up to pull one of the ambulance doors shut. “He’s in shock, honey. He doesn’t know what he’s saying. Just ignore him. I’ve seen this kind of thing before.”
Ginny somehow managed to sound normal when she said, “Thanks. I figured.”
But she knew she deserved every rebuke. Oh, but she was angry too. Not at Parker but at herself. She should have acted immediately when she received the bank notice. And once Parker explained why he and his mom had vanished, she should have told him everything. About Meg. About Tilda. The whole truth. He’d had every right to know that she wasn’t the mother she claimed to be. That Tilda was Meg’s child. Not Ginny’s.
She looked down, unable to stand being stared at for the fool she was. Not that he was the only wounded party. It shouldn’t have taken Parker fifteen lousy years to let her know he was alive. He’d made that choice.
Although she shouldn’t be surprised or hurt. No one had ever cared enough about her to stick around. The only person besides Meg who’d ever truly loved her was Tilda. But by tomorrow, after their talk, she’d probably lose Tilda too.
“You ready?” Erica asked, holding out her hand to help Ginny into the ambulance.
“She’s not coming with me.” Parker sounded as if he were insulted by the idea.
Erica turned to Parker. “Why not let your wife come along? She’ll just worry about you.”
“My wife? I’m injured, not stupid.”
Ginny didn’t even blink. “Go on,” she said, pasting on a smile when Erica turned back. “I have to stay. The FBI wants my statement.”
Parker let out a shaky breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them seconds later he looked wretched. “No,” he said in a lower, more controlled voice. “Why don’t you come with me? They can catch up to us at the hospital and get both our statements together.”
Ginny shook her head. “Please, go,” she said to Erica. “He needs to be l
ooked at sooner rather than later.”
Parker’s brows lowered and he wasn’t faking the remorse on his face. She didn’t doubt that he felt bad. And she wasn’t trying to rub it in. She simply didn’t have the energy.
Turning her back on him and anything that wasn’t the next step in the excruciating journey that would give her back Tilda—for a while at least—she walked toward Agent Archer. For tonight, after she finished with the FBI, she could still dial her baby and listen to her be happy that her mom had called.
* * *
THE HOSPITAL SMELLED like antiseptic and misery, and all Parker wanted to do was bolt. Get back to his plane. Reboot his life.
The doctor had assured him that it wouldn’t be a long recovery, and that the surgery itself wasn’t going to be complicated even though he still had to sign all the forms.
None of that mattered at the moment.
Okay, a short recovery did, but he didn’t care about the rest. He’d had no business being such a jerk to Ginny. The last thing she needed after today was him giving her a hard time.
Unfortunately, the loudmouthed paramedics had told the doctor that Parker was a pilot. He’d been grounded. Temporarily, yes, but being sidelined for even a day was a problem. They had to get back to Rhode Island. He had a choice to make—leave his plane at La Guardia and go back with Ginny to make sure she didn’t make any stupid decisions about Tilda, or stay in New York and hound the doc into clearing him to fly, then go back to Temptation Bay. Or Boise. Wherever Ginny and Tilda were.
First, though, he and Ginny had to work out when she should tell Tilda and how and when he was going to give his mother the news. He dreaded having to tell his mom that Meg was most likely dead. Man, it was still hard for him to process. Since there was no conclusive proof it was tempting to delay that part. But keeping her wondering and hoping wasn’t fair.
All of that was a mess, sure, but he kept circling back to that moment when he saw the gun pointed at Ginny. What it had done to him. How even knowing she’d almost been killed was a lot worse than him being shot.
If he hadn’t been looking in the right direction. If he’d reacted a couple of seconds later...
He shook his head, wanting to get into surgery already. Get knocked out. Let him be numb for a while, with no worries, no depressing thoughts about his sister, no realizing how downright mean he’d been to Ginny.
Of course, then he’d wake up, and nothing would have changed, except that he’d have to find a hotel or fly on some commercial airline. Maybe he could take a train up the coast. Alone.
As if he’d be able to forget about Ginny for a minute. Ginny and Tilda and his mom. Mark was probably about to dissolve their partnership, and his clients were more than likely getting ready to send out a search party to drag him back.
The agent sent by Archer had left twenty minutes ago. The guy had had more questions than answers for Parker, but they hadn’t talked long. His statement had been put off for the operation that he didn’t need. The only thing he knew for sure was that Danny Masters hadn’t been at the scene, and that the shooter and his driver had escaped, but they’d caught the guys in the SUV. What he needed to know was whether or not Ginny was still in danger.
“Time to check your vitals, Mr. Nolan,” the nurse said as she walked into his room. She blithely pulled the curtain that gave him a modicum of privacy all the way back, so any passerby could watch her stick something in his ear, take his blood pressure and ask him a long list of idiotic questions. His arm didn’t even hurt that bad.
“Here we go,” she said, smiling as if her life was all peaches and cream. He knew better. Overly cheery people gave him the willies.
What annoyed him more was that she reminded him of Ginny. Her hair was almost the same dark blond and the same length. Her eyes were green, but not that vibrant green that Ginny’s were. And Nurse Smiley Face wasn’t even close to being as pretty.
The second the thermometer was out of his ear, she started cuffing his good arm.
“Anyone come by looking for me?”
“Hmm?” She pushed the button on the machine that wanted to strangle his biceps. “Not that I’m aware of, but I’ll be happy to check for you.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“All righty.” She picked up his chart and made some notes as the cuff deflated. “With no pain at all being a zero and more pain than you can tolerate being ten, how would you rate your pain level, Mr. Nolan?”
He wanted to scream.
He didn’t.
Finally, his answers were all taken, and the nurse was ready to leave. “Would you like me to close the curtain? It won’t be a minute until they come in to prep you.”
Prep him? Great. “Yeah, would you please shut the curtain?”
He was tired of being stared at, even though he knew there wasn’t much else to do in this purgatory.
Once he was alone, his thoughts went right back to Ginny and Danny “Spider” Masters. Logic told him that Ginny would be fine. Masters’s men had failed to get any information on her, and she was no longer in possession of the envelope. Masters didn’t care about her personally. He’d wanted to get a hold of whatever Meg had left in the safe-deposit box. Now that the information was in the hands of the authorities, he would be a lot more concerned with hiding from every agency that would be after him. The man was too smart and greedy to spare any time and resources going after Ginny without cause. Even if he had been the vindictive type, she was small potatoes, and he would know she’d be given protection.
Still, Parker would rather have his hypothesis confirmed by Agent Archer before he saw Ginny again. If he saw Ginny again.
He could just go to Boise and tell his mom the whole story and then fly back home.
But he probably wouldn’t.
He closed his eyes, trying to relax before being prepped. He didn’t think they’d have to shave anything. At least he hoped not.
Two minutes later, two orderlies and a nurse came in, and it was all signing this and that and getting yet another banana bag hung, just to relax him.
He fell asleep before he reached the operating room.
* * *
FOUR HOURS AFTER being helped out of the glass-splattered cab, Ginny had finally finished giving her statement to Special Agent Archer and two other agents and was taken to the entrance of the hospital where Parker was being treated.
She didn’t go inside. Instead, she walked down the busy street and thought about what to say to Tilda when she called her. And how not to cry. She wouldn’t be able to tell Tilda very much over the phone. The last thing Ginny wanted was to worry Tilda even more than she already had. She knew Tilda would want to know why Ginny had been so out of touch and when she could come home. Which Ginny couldn’t say and didn’t know.
Maybe she should call Parker’s mother and let her know... What? That Parker had been shot? That he was in surgery? That it had all been Ginny’s fault?
No. That was a foolish idea. She wasn’t about to interfere again. Say something she might regret.
It wasn’t until she’d made it half a block that she realized she was being followed. Of course. It was Agent Morales, who’d been assigned to protect her. Just in case. She turned around, gave him a brief smile and then returned to the hospital entrance. She dialed the number printed on the door. She could have walked in, but she wasn’t ready. Not yet. At this point, Agent Morales probably thought she needed to be examined herself.
Parker, she was told, was just coming out of surgery. She did lie and say she was family, and found out it had all gone well. But she wouldn’t be able to see him for a while as he was still out from the anesthesia.
After she hung up, her shoulders relaxed. At least she hadn’t gotten him killed. Now, if she could only go to sleep. A month might make her feel a little better, as long as she had no dreams at all. But no.
; She’d be a grown-up and go see him, whether he liked it or not. After her call to Tilda.
Her shoulders tensed again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
EVERYTHING WAS BLURRY. There were things beeping and his mouth tasted funny. He didn’t feel so good.
“Parker?”
He looked to his left. Didn’t even have to turn his head. Ginny was right there. Sitting in a chair. She was much prettier than that nurse. He could reach out and touch her. Except her eyes were red and puffy and his mouth still tasted terrible. “What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding as if he smoked five packs a day.
“With me? Nothing. How are you feeling?”
Parker shrugged. A big mistake. Whoa. “Fine, as long as I don’t move my shoulder.”
“You sound... Maybe I can give you some water. I have to ask. Just...rest. I’ll be right back.”
He closed his eyes and tried not to move. Pretty sure Ginny had lied about nothing being wrong. He’d ask her again. After she got back from wherever she’d gone.
He opened his eyes, and Ginny was sitting next to him again. “Hey,” he croaked.
“Hey. I’m allowed to give you ice chips. Would you like some?”
He nodded. Tried to lift his head, but that just made his shoulder hurt. Probably because he’d asked the nurse to hold back on the painkillers. That considered, the pain wasn’t so bad.
The top part of his bed was adjustable, so he was sitting up pretty well. Ginny put a remote on his stomach, then put a spoon up to his mouth, like she was feeding a baby. He wanted to tell her he could do it himself, but when he opened his mouth she stuck the spoon in, and it was ice and water, and it felt too good to complain.
He let her do that a few more times. She’d probably leave and then he’d just do the ice himself.
His vision wasn’t so fuzzy anymore, and neither was his head. At least, mostly. The day came back to him all in a rush, like a movie on Fast-forward. “Did they catch the guys in the Mustang?”
She put the glass of ice chips down on the tray at his side. “Not yet,” she said. “At least not that I know of. I think Agent Morales would’ve told me.”