Exposed

by Laura Griffin

  They left him cursing in the dirt and raced for the barn. Bracewell’s oversize black pickup was exactly where Brian had last seen it. The other trucks—and the money-stuffed tires—were long gone. A shotgun lay abandoned on the ground, and Brian grabbed it.

  “You drive,” he ordered, but Maddie was already jumping behind the wheel. Brian hopped in on the passenger side and didn’t even have time to pull the door shut as Maddie barreled full-speed through the side of the barn. Splinters and dust flew everywhere, and it was sheer luck they didn’t plow straight into a tree.

  Brian looked at her. “This thing has a reverse.”

  “Where’d they go?”

  “East.”

  She glared at him.

  “Take a right.”

  Maddie swerved right and picked up the road as Brian jabbed the window button and rested the barrel of the gun on the door. If they could get close enough, he might be able to take out the driver.

  Where the hell was his team? And where was Hicks? Brian’s phone vibrated in his pocket.

  “Someone’s calling me.”

  Maddie reached over and dug the phone out of his pants as she sped down the dusty road. She tossed the phone into his lap, and Brian tried to keep the shotgun steady as he pressed talk.

  “Where the hell are you?” Sam’s voice sounded tinny on the other end of the call. “The Doctor slipped his surveillance. He—”

  “I’m at Bracewell’s. Mladovic is here! Where the fuck’s our backup?”

  “What?”

  “We need backup! Where’s the team?”

  Maddie hit a bump, and the phone flew to the floor. Brian cursed.

  “Get closer,” he ordered as the white SUV came into view.

  Maddie floored it. The closer they got, the harder it was to see through the cloud of dust. As soon as they hit the highway, though, he might have a better shot.

  She hit another rut. “Sorry!”

  “Get low!”

  The SUV veered off the road and skidded to a stop. The door popped open, and Vlad lunged out.

  “Stop! He’s running!”

  Maddie halted, and Brian grabbed his Glock and jumped out. He sprinted after the man. He heard the engine straining and knew Maddie was right behind him, trying to run the man down, or at least scare him into surrendering.

  Vlad turned and fired, a wild-ass shot that didn’t even come close. Pure outrage gave Brian the burst he needed to tackle him to the ground. He flipped him onto his stomach. No cuffs. He dug his knee into the guy’s back and smashed his pistol against the side of his head with a satisfying thunk.

  A flash of green in his peripheral vision. Brian glanced up and saw Mladovic leaning out the window of the old pickup.

  Then everything slowed down.

  Mladovic swung his arm around. Brian followed it with his gaze and reacted. But even as he lifted his Glock and squeezed the trigger, he knew he was a split second too late.

  Maddie!

  Her windshield exploded. The truck jerked left.

  Blood bloomed red on Mladovic’s chest.

  Kill shot. Brian knew it instantly.

  And then his gaze jerked back to Maddie as the pickup smashed into a tree.

  A tremendous slap.

  Maddie couldn’t move. Not a muscle. The world was black, and she was pinned by some enormous weight. The air had been knocked from her lungs, and she couldn’t breathe. She tried to blink, tried to lift her head. She couldn’t make her lungs expand, and everything around her seemed to slide into darkness.

  She felt the pull of Emma.

  Mommy.

  Her little voice, clear as the sky. Her precious baby smell entered Maddie’s nose and lungs and filled her to bursting.

  Mommy.

  Maddie’s heart lurched. She wanted to reach out and scoop her up and never let her go. But the world was black, and her arms were pinned, and she still couldn’t move.

  Maddie.

  Someone was calling her.

  Brian? Jolene?

  Jolene. She’d run from the truck. She’d run away—

  Maddie!

  Brian yanked open the door and found her slumped over the deflated airbag.

  “Oh, Jesus.” Blood was everywhere. “Maddie!”

  He pulled her back, saw the gash in her forehead. Blood streamed down her face. Had she been shot? Blood was all over, but he couldn’t find the source of it. In some dim corner of his mind, he registered a rhythmic thumping noise he remembered from combat.

  “Maddie, come on, baby. Oh, God.”

  He tipped her head back and searched for the entry wound. Her eyes fluttered open, and Brian’s legs went weak. He sank down and had to grab the door to stay on his feet.

  She muttered something.

  “I’m right here. Maddie, can you hear me?” He spied his phone on the floor and reached around her legs to grab it. Sam was gone, but he dialed 911.

  “Jo . . .”

  “Help’s on the way.”

  She gripped his shirt. He looked down, stunned, at her white-knuckled fist.

  “Jolene.”

  The one word, perfectly clear. Her eyes were clear now, too, which was indescribably weird with all the blood streaming down her face.

  “She ran from the truck. I saw her.” Maddie pulled herself forward, falling into him.

  “We’ll find her. Maddie?”

  But she was out of the pickup, staggering across the grass. Brian caught her around the waist.

  “Whoa, Maddie—”

  “She’s hurt. We have to find her.”

  Her nails in his arm were like talons, and she kept moving forward, pulling him with her. She wiped her arm over her face and looked shocked when it came away smeared with blood. She wrestled out of her jacket and used it to wipe her face as she glanced around desperately.

  The whump-whump noise grew louder, and Brian turned to see his backup finally making the scene. The chopper swooped low over the property and hovered above the campground, where just minutes ago, everything had gone down without them. Dust kicked up, stinging his eyes.

  Maddie’s grip on his arm tightened. Then it disappeared, and she rushed forward toward a girl lying curled in a ditch.

  It wasn’t over yet. They were back. Jolene blinked up at the light. She heard noise, shouting. An enormous man stepped in front of her, blocking out the sun, and she pulled herself into a ball.

  Please, no more. Please, no. She pulled her knees to her chest and tried to will herself away.

  Jolene.

  She went still. Not her mother’s voice, but . . .

  Jolene, can you hear me?

  Not a man but a woman now. A woman. Hope stirred inside her. Something warm and soft settled over her like a blanket. Jolene started to cry.

  It’s okay now. We’re here to take you home.

  CHAPTER 26

  Brian understood now why Maddie hated hospitals. The smells. The waiting. The bureaucracy. After three solid hours, he was ready to climb the walls.

  “This is my fault.”

  He glanced at Maddie in the chair beside him. She was pale and worried and had dots of iodine all over her forehead from where the nurses had cleaned her cuts. “It’s not,” he said firmly.

  If anyone was at fault here, it was Cabrera, who’d ordered his agent to the scene. Within moments of setting foot on the property, Hicks had crossed paths with a guard and been sprayed with a machine gun. If not for his vest, he’d have been killed instantly. Instead, he lay bleeding in the dirt as Mladovic’s man rushed to sound the warning.

  But Maddie thought everything was her fault, and she’d been a bundle of guilt and nerves for the past three hours.

  The ER doors slid open, and Sam strode in. Brian and Maddie stood.

  “Any word?” Sam asked.

  Maddie shook her head. “Still waiting.”

  “I got hold of Hicks’s fiancée,” Sam said. “She’s on her way over. And I just heard from LeBlanc,” Sam looked at Brian. “She helped
execute a search warrant over at Bracewell’s. He had a Remington 700 and a box of .308 Winchester ammo in his closet. We sent it to Scott for testing since he did the original slug.”

  Brian glanced at Maddie to see if she understood.

  “You mean . . . ?”

  Sam nodded. “The working theory is that he summoned you out to that accident scene and set himself up on the cliff to wait. Turns out one of his cousins owns a towing company. We think that’s where he drummed up the rig and the decoy car.”

  Maddie looked away, and Brian could tell she still hadn’t quite gotten her head around it. She’d worked with the man for years. A betrayal like that had to burn.

  “Where’s Bracewell now?” Sam asked.

  “Third floor,” Brian said. “There’s a pair of agents stationed outside his room, in case he gets any ideas about hobbling out of here.” He gave Sam a long look. “And Mladovic is dead. He didn’t make it through surgery.”

  Beside him, Maddie tensed. How did she feel about seeing him take another man’s life? He didn’t know, because for the past three hours, she’d hardly said anything.

  “You okay?” Sam asked.

  Brian gave a sharp nod. His conscience was clear. But he was still going to have to justify his actions to a review board.

  The double doors swung open, and a doctor in blue scrubs stepped out. Brian tried to read the verdict on the man’s face as he walked over.

  “Is the agent’s family here yet?” he asked.

  “They’re on their way.”

  The doctor looked from Brian to Sam, then back to Brian, probably weighing how much to tell when they weren’t next-of-kin.

  “When they get here,” the doctor said, “tell them he’s in recovery.”

  Maddie slumped against him, and Brian put his arm around her.

  “We put two pins in his leg and gave him four units of blood. His condition is stabilized. We should know more within the hour.”

  He disappeared back through the doors. Brian turned to Sam and saw his own relief mirrored on his face.

  Sam clamped a hand on his shoulder. “You need to get back, Beck. I’ll stay here and wait for the fiancée.”

  Maddie looked alarmed. “You have to go in?”

  “I need to debrief.”

  “Didn’t you already do all that back at the deer lease? You were stuck there for an hour.”

  “That’s just the beginning.”

  A commotion across the waiting room caught Brian’s eye as Jolene’s grandparents entered the ER. They fell into a hug with Jolene’s mom, and even from across the room, Brian could see the tears of relief streaming down their faces. Jolene was in the back, being checked out by a doctor. She was going to need extensive surgery on her hand and probably years of counseling, but she was alive, which was more than Brian or Sam had dared hope—more than anyone had dared hope.

  Except Maddie.

  Brian looked at her now, watching the reunion. She looked spent, both emotionally and physically.

  “Let me run you home,” he said.

  Sam shot him a look that told him he needed to get his ass back to the office for paperwork and interviews. But Brian ignored him. He took Maddie’s hand and led her through the sliding doors into the crisp winter air.

  She stopped to blink up at the sun. “What time is it?”

  “Three.”

  “Seems later than that.”

  He’d parked illegally and was glad to see he hadn’t been towed. He opened the passenger door, and she climbed in without a word.

  He glanced at her as he slid behind the wheel. “I’m going to be at least a few hours. Maybe more.”

  She didn’t say anything, just looked out the window as they left the hospital parking lot.

  Brian trained his gaze on the road ahead. She’d been through a shock. They both had. Brian had ended a man’s life today. Just boom, gone.

  But that wasn’t the moment that had made Brian’s heart stop. The sight of Mladovic aiming that gun and that window bursting—that image was going to have him waking up in a cold sweat for a long, long time.

  He loved her.

  It had hit him today like a sucker punch. He loved her, and he had no freaking idea how he was going to get her to love him back. But he had to do it.

  He glanced over as she stared out the window with that faraway look on her face. It was a look he’d seen on the faces of soldiers after a firefight.

  “Maddie?”

  She looked at him.

  “You all right?”

  “Fine,” she said.

  The rest of the trip was silent. Brian pulled into her driveway. He started to get out of the car, but she put her hand on his knee.

  “It’s okay.”

  He looked at her and felt his heart sinking. He couldn’t control her. He couldn’t make her want him. And knowing he couldn’t made him feel more powerless than anything in his life.

  “You need to go.” She glanced at her curb, where for the first time in days, there wasn’t an FBI vehicle. She looked at him and cleared her throat. “When you’re finished with everything . . . will you come back?” The look in her eyes was tentative. She was uncomfortable even asking.

  He leaned over and kissed her. “I’ll come back,” he promised. “Soon as I can.”

  CHAPTER 27

  Maddie walked up to the beveled-glass door and surveyed the cheerful pots of marigolds decorating the porch. She spotted the bell, but the door swung back before she could ring it.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi.” She smiled at Mitch, who was clearly surprised to see her. Actually, he seemed dumbstruck. She’d never been to his house before.

  He glanced over his shoulder. “The baby’s sleeping, so we’re trying not to let people ring . . .” His voice trailed off as he looked her over. She looked him over, too, taking in his bloodshot eyes and food-stained T-shirt. He looked like a man on paternity leave.

  A brown-eyed child peeked out from behind his leg. “Who are you?”

  Maddie’s breath caught. She opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out.

  “This is a friend of Daddy’s. Go finish your show, sport.”

  Mitch mussed the boy’s hair, and he scampered away.

  Maddie recovered her voice. “He looks like Emma.”

  Mitch stepped out onto the porch, closing the door behind him. He smiled and tucked his hands into his pockets. “I think it might be more accurate to say he looks like me.” His gaze traveled over her and landed on the yellow bag in her hand.

  “I brought you something.” She held it up. “Actually, it’s for Conner.”

  Maddie hadn’t received a birth announcement, but she’d heard the details from one of their mutual friends.

  Mitch gave her a quizzical look now as he took the bag and dug through the tissue paper. He pulled out a polished brown box made of inlaid wood. A look of recognition came to his face.

  “Where’d you get this?” He opened the lid, and twangy notes of “You Are My Sunshine” drifted out. “This was mine as a kid.”

  “Your mom gave it to us.” She smiled. “Don’t you remember?”

  “No.”

  “God, Mitch.” She shook her head. Some things never changed.

  He stared down at the box. Then he looked up, and she saw tears welling in his eyes.

  “It was in Emma’s room,” he said. “I remember now.”

  Maddie cleared her throat. “It’s your family heirloom. I thought Conner should have it.”

  He looked at her, and a timeworn understanding passed between them. He knew the effort it was for her to stand here and not run away. A lump rose in her throat, but she forced it down. This was harder than she’d thought.

  “Thank you.” He tucked the box back into the bag and set it down at his feet. When he looked at her again, she could see the questions percolating.

  And she didn’t want to answer them. Once upon a time, they’d been on the same journey. Together. They’d shared everyt
hing. But that was over now, and she didn’t want it back.

  He took a small step forward. She stepped back.

  “Give my best to Danielle.” She smiled. “And congratulations.”

  Brian had the hedge clippers out when she pulled into the driveway. Maddie sat for a moment in the car, just watching him as he hacked away at her overgrown holly bushes.

  She got out. “I brought lunch.”

  He glanced at her and wiped his forehead on his bare arm. “I’m starving.”

  “You’re always starving.” She walked across the lawn to kiss him and got sweat on the tip of her nose.

  “You smell like grass clippings.” She said it with a scowl, but she secretly loved it. It was one of the many things she’d learned to love lately, along with the sneakers in her living room and the overnight bag that had become a permanent fixture on the floor of her closet. He never seemed to unpack it, even though weeks ago, she’d started throwing his wash in with hers and putting his clothes away in one of her dresser drawers.

  She sat down on the top porch step. He tossed the clippers onto the lawn and sank onto the step beside her.

  “No shoes, no shirt, no service.”

  “Too bad.” He kissed her again. “This is the price you pay for getting your hedges trimmed.”

  She handed him a lemonade. “Yeah, I’ve noticed you’re kind of manic about those. Must be your farming roots.”

  “Safety.” He took a big slurp, and she admired his slick chest as he heaved a sigh. “Don’t want burglars coming around.”

  “Well, in that case, thank you.”

  He rested the drink on his knee and leaned back against the wooden post. “So where were you all morning?”

  “Had some errands to run. I went to see Mitch.”

  His gaze darkened.

  “I took him a baby present.”

  He leaned forward, and the look of concern on his face made her heart squeeze. He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “You all right?”

  “Yeah.” She let out a sigh. “I am.”