Solid Steel (Unseen Enemy Book 6)

by James, Marysol

  “Yep. You ready to move?”

  Griff’s eyes were nailed on Diana and the guy as they sucked face like teenagers. “Oh, yeah. I’m so ready to get these two behind closed doors. Watching this for the past three hours has been damn painful.”

  “I’ll just bet.”

  “Next time, we switch and you watch her make out with random strangers.”

  “Deal.”

  “Great. So I’ll go and tell them we’re ready… you get the door.”

  “On it.”

  Selena stepped outside, gave the parking lot a good, long look. The autumn sky was pitch-black, but the area was well-lit and there were two hulking bouncers standing about fifty feet away having a cigarette, watching the door. They nodded at her, she smiled back. She gave one more searching look around, spoke in to her headset.

  “OK, Griff. The coast’s clear.”

  “Got that. We’re coming out.”

  The door opened behind her and she gave a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure that it was Griff, Diana and the idiot. When she turned around again, he was on her.

  Where he came from, Selena had no idea. He was moving fast, though, and all she saw was a flash of something silver and dangerous, and then there was blinding pain on the left side of her chest. She fell to her knees, all out of breath. She gasped for air, looked down, saw blood on the front of her shirt.

  Fuck. I’ve been stabbed.

  There was shouting from the bouncers now, Diana was screaming, the stalker was hollering about Diana being a whore and going home with another man. The idiot took to his heels back in to the club, Griff fought to shove Diana behind him but she struggled with him, wasting precious time and taking Griff’s attention.

  It only took those few extra seconds for the stalker to gain the upper hand: by the time Griff had placed himself between Diana and the man and had started to turn around, it was too late for Griff to defend himself.

  The stalker launched himself at Griff with a speed and ferocity that took Selena aback. She was struggling to her feet even as the knife plunged in to Griff’s neck, deep and hard. He fell to the ground without a sound and Diana’s hands went to her mouth as the man now focused on her. He took a step forward.

  “You little slut,” he ground out. “Gonna teach you a lesson.”

  “Hey. Dickhead.”

  At Selena’s voice, the man turned, stunned. The first bullet hit him in the hand and he howled and dropped the bloody knife. The second bullet went in to his lower leg and he fell to the ground heavily, curled up on himself and almost in tears.

  Selena took a shaky step forward and kicked the knife away. It spun and caught the light and she shifted on her feet, trying to find her center of balance.

  “Stay the fuck down,” Selena hissed. “Or the next one goes in the middle of your goddamn forehead.”

  The man didn’t even respond: he was far too busy clutching his leg and rolling around on the ground. The bouncers were beside her, but Selena had eyes for nobody except the client. She was her primary responsibility, no matter what else was going on.

  “Take Ms. Keeler inside,” Selena snapped to the one bouncer. “Don’t leave her side for one second, you hear me?”

  The guy easily had almost a foot and probably more than eighty pounds on her, but he jumped to do as she said. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Go.”

  Diana screamed and sobbed and babbled, but thank Christ she went. Selena kept her eyes pinned to the man on the ground even as she spoke to the second bouncer.

  “Call for help. My partner’s been stabbed.”

  The man nodded, his thumb already on the speed dial for the ambulance. The Cave had its fair share of fights and the place was well-known to 911. Within seconds, he disconnected and told Selena that the ambulance would be there in three minutes at the most.

  “Watch him,” she said to the bouncer now. “If he moves, stomp on his goddamn right leg. That’s where I shot him.”

  The man nodded again and finally, finally Selena was able to get to Griff.

  She knelt down beside him on the ground and applied pressure to the wound on his neck. He was gray, barely breathing, cold. She pushed harder, trying to staunch the flow of blood. It didn’t seem to make much difference, but she told herself that it did.

  “Griff,” she said urgently. “Griff, can you hear me?”

  There was no response and she fought to stay calm. No good ever came from panicking and anyway, she was finding it hard enough to breathe as it was. She ignored the pain in her chest, ignored the pool of blood gathering around her – blood that was both Griff’s and hers.

  By the time the large hand descended on her shoulder and the EMT told her to move aside so they could treat Griff, she was barely conscious. She was still awake only through sheer force of will, and even that was flagging badly.

  The darkness that had been looming on the edges of her vision moved closer, closer again. She shook her head to clear it, shuffled to one side on her knees. She watched the paramedics check Griff’s vitals and start an IV. She managed to get to her feet as they loaded him in to the back of the ambulance and they took off, sirens blaring.

  “Hey.”

  She turned, tried to focus on the EMT from the second ambulance. He was down on the ground treating the stalker; the glowering bouncer was watching closely.

  “Hey, lady,” the EMT said. “You OK?”

  “Yeah.” Selena’s tongue wasn’t working properly. “I’m fine.”

  The man came over to her now, his eyes fixed on her shirt front.

  “That your blood?”

  She looked down, almost casually. “Yeah. I – I got stabbed. I think the dickhead may have punctured my lung.”

  That was the last thing she remembered before the lurking, creeping shadows rushed in fast and furious. She fell hard in to the raging blackness that just washed over her, washed her away.

  Chapter Six

  “How the actual fuck did he even know that the principal was at The Cave?” Dallas demanded Mark Hayden, his second-in-command, the second that he got to the hospital. It wasn’t much of a greeting, but to hell with pleasantries. “Selena texted me that she took Diana’s phone.”

  “Yes, but apparently Diana borrowed someone else’s phone and updated her Facebook status.”

  Dallas swore under his breath. “Fucking twit practically sent the guy a ‘here I am, come get me’ invitation.”

  “Uh-huh.” Mark’s mint-green eyes were cool against his café-au-lait skin, but Dallas knew that he was as angry as he was. “She’s a problem, one that made it real easy for Paul Fisher to just stroll right on up to her.”

  “That’s his name?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Fuck.” Dallas ran his hands through his dark hair, every muscle in his large body tense and tight with fury. “Is the client OK?”

  Mark shrugged. “She’s fine. Shaken up, obviously, but Griff got her out of the way.”

  “And damn near got himself killed in the process.”

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “And just how the actual hell did this dickhead stalker get the drop in Selena?” Dallas shook his head. “Nobody gets the drop on her, and I mean nobody. If she gave Griff the go-ahead to bring the principal in to that parking lot, then she thought the coast was clear. No way Selena makes a rookie mistake like that.”

  “Yeah, well.” Mark popped some coins in to the vending machine, pushed the button for black coffee. “That wasn’t on her. Seems that the bouncers dropped the ball there, big time.”

  “They hadn’t had eyes on the parking lot the whole night?”

  “Nope.” Mark shook his dark head. “According to the security camera footage, they’d fucked off on the regular, actually, to go have a smoke break and flirt with the customers. They left the lot unobserved for several
minutes at a time. Our good friend Paul just wandered on over to a parked car in the VIP lot, broke in, hunkered down and bided his time, man. He was less than six feet from that door the whole damn time, just waiting for Diana to come out.”

  “So of course Selena missed him. Didn’t see him until he was fucking on them.”

  “Yep.”

  “Thank Christ Selena can shoot with deadly accuracy even with a gaping chest wound.”

  “No kidding, huh?”

  “Any word how she is?”

  “Not yet.” Mark handed Dallas the coffee from the hospital vending machine. It was undoubtedly going to be horrible stuff, but it was hot and had caffeine and at five a.m., that was about all you could ask for. “The nurse said the doctor would be here soon.”

  “OK.” Dallas took the coffee with a grateful nod. “So let’s sit.”

  “Roxanna called Selena’s Dad? Griff’s sister in Maine?”

  “Yeah. Selena’s Dad’s got a heart condition and can’t fly, and you know that things with her brothers are complicated, to put it mildly.”

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “So, I don’t think anybody from her family will be able to get here, but her Dad said that he’ll call back later. I can always send someone out there to drive him back, if things look hairy.”

  “And Griff’s sister? Felicia, right?”

  “Right.” Dallas took a sip of coffee, made a face at the vile taste. “She’s a single mother so she’s looking for a sitter for her kid. Said she’d get in touch with us when she was able to sort stuff out at her end.”

  Just then, the elevator doors slid open and a tall, broad man stepped off and looked around. He went straight to the nurses’ station and spoke to the woman there. She pointed at Dallas and Mark and the man stared in their direction. He nodded and headed over to them with quick, long strides.

  “Dallas Foreman?” he said.

  “Yeah, that’s me,” Dallas responded. “And this is Mark Hayden.”

  The man extended a huge hand to both of them. “Luke Rhodes. Griff’s sister Felicia called me.”

  “Oh, right.” Dallas shook Luke’s hand and that was when he noticed that the other man’s left hand was missing. “You’re a friend of Griff’s?”

  “Yeah.” Luke’s blue eyes were calm but Dallas could see that he was angry. “I’m local, so she called and asked me to drop by, see how things are going.”

  “Griff’s still in surgery,” Mark said. “And his partner’s getting checked over now.”

  Now Luke’s eyes were startled, surprised. “Selena? She’s hurt too?”

  “Yeah.” Mark was equally surprised. “You know Selena?”

  “Yeah.” Luke thought about that incredible kissing, about how she felt under him as she clung to his body with such need. “I do.”

  “And Felicia didn’t tell you that she was also stabbed by the stalker?”

  “Actually, Roxanna didn’t mention it when she called about Griff, so Felicia had no idea,” Dallas clarified. “We saw no sense in mentioning Selena’s private medical information and anyway, Felicia was so panicked and upset, it’d do no good for her to get all the bad news in one go.”

  “But Selena’s OK?” Luke said.

  “We don’t know,” Dallas said. “She was stabbed in the chest and was having trouble breathing, but that’s all we got right now.”

  Luke sucked in air. “Fuck. And Griff? How bad?”

  “Bad,” Mark said quietly. “He got stabbed in the neck and lost a lot of blood, but Selena managed to slow it down. She may well have saved his life.”

  “So… wait.” Luke shook his head, trying to keep up. “So Selena was stabbed in the chest but she was still conscious?”

  “More than that,” Dallas said. “She got her bleeding self up off the ground and shot the fucker who stabbed her. Then she got the principal to safety. Then she took care of her partner. Nobody even knew how bad she was hurt until she passed out… after Griff had been taken away and after the stalker had received medical attention.”

  “Goddamn,” Luke said gruffly. His already-sky-high estimation of the woman went up another dozen notches or so. “She’s unbelievable.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Just then, a young doctor passed the waiting area, reading a chart. Right away, Mark recognized him as one of the doctors who had followed Selena’s gurney down the hall. Without any warning, Mark pounced.

  “Doc? How’s Selena?”

  He jumped a bit and peered up at them. “Oh. Oh, well… I’m just a resident. Doctor Innis will be here soon and he can fill you in better.”

  “When?” Luke snapped. “When will Doctor Innis be here?”

  “Uh, I’m not sure. Maybe ten minutes?”

  “Fine,” Mark said. “Thanks.”

  The younger man brightened. “The one thing I can tell you is that the silicone and gel definitely saved her life.”

  Dallas, Mark and Luke gazed down at him from their massive heights.

  “What?” Dallas said softly.

  “Her breast forms,” the doctor explained. “The knife went through the left one and the resistance it provided slowed down the movement enough to make the stab wound much less deep. That prosthesis saved her life.”

  The three men were very still. They shot each other looks, saw their own surprise reflected on the other men’s faces.

  “Selena has prostheses?” Dallas said. “For her breasts?”

  “Yes.” The doctor took in the shock and anger and he looked uncomfortable now. “You weren’t aware of her recent double mastectomy?”

  “No.” Dallas was furious. “No, we had no fucking idea and who the hell are you, going around spouting off her confidential medical information to random men in a goddamn waiting room? Do you even know who we are to her? If we even have any fucking right to know any of this?”

  “I’m sorry,” the younger man stammered. “I – I thought you knew already –”

  “Get out,” Dallas snarled at him. “Get out and don’t say one more word about this to anyone.”

  The man scurried away without so much as a backwards glance and the three men looked at each other, gauging each other’s reactions. Finally, Dallas sighed.

  “I guess that explains where she was for six weeks.”

  Mark and Luke nodded, still shocked.

  “She – she didn’t tell you?” Luke asked cautiously. “I know she didn’t tell Griff, but when she asked for the leave, she never said what it was for?”

  “No.” Dallas drank some more coffee, hoping for strength. “She just said it was for medical reasons and that it was voluntary surgery and it may interfere with her ability to fire a weapon. She showed up at work after six weeks with a recertification document for firearms and just handed it over without comment.” He paused as he remembered something. “She did say – she said that the surgery was preventative. That if she didn’t get the surgery, something bad would happen to her in the future.”

  They fell quiet again. Mark broke the silence tentatively.

  “Her Mom and sister died of breast cancer. Her grandmother, too.”

  “And her aunt,” Dallas added.

  They stared at the floor, hating everything about this fucked-up morning. This time, it was Luke who spoke first.

  “So, you think she had her breasts removed to prevent the cancer? That she has some kind of – genetic predisposition to the disease and this was the only way to be sure she wouldn’t contract it?”

  “Yeah,” Mark said slowly. “Yeah, it’s possible.”

  “Fuck,” Dallas burst out. “Why wouldn’t she tell us this? We’re her family, we’d have been there for her… had her back.”

  “I think she thought you’d coddle her,” Luke said, remembering what she’d said that day at the track. “She told me that she hates wh
en you guys worry about her or talk behind her back. She’d find pity intolerable.”

  “Pity?” Mark said, aghast. “Jesus, we’d never pity the woman, but we sure as hell could have been there when she’d woken up. We’d have stayed with her as she recovered and brought her home. Done some cooking and cleaning, watched movies and hung out. And no way she didn’t need a shoulder to lean on as she dealt with all of this – any one of us would have been there. All she had to do was ask.”

  “Well, she didn’t ask,” Dallas said. “And she’s gonna be fucking horrified that we know this now.” He paused. “Furious, too.”

  “But we have to tell her that we know, right?” Mark asked his boss.

  “Yeah.” Dallas sighed again, dreading that conversation. “For now, though, we can do all the things that we didn’t do three months ago. We’ll stay here. Take care of her. Help her out.”

  “Count me in,” Luke said suddenly.

  Dallas and Mark stared at him, took in his set jaw and tense shoulders.

  “Yeah?” Mark said.

  “Yeah.” Luke shook his head, so angry at himself for pressuring her for a date. No goddamn wonder she’d pushed him away: she had to be struggling with her body right now, struggling with feeling sexy and beautiful.

  Well, he had no problem with seeing her that way. Luke hated how he’d found out the truth, but he was glad to know it and it didn’t change a single damn thing for him, anyway. She was still the most gorgeous, strongest, smartest woman that he’d ever known and nothing would take any of that away from her. Not even a fucking surgeon’s scalpel.

  “Yeah,” he said again. “I want to be here for Griff and Selena. What do I need to do?”

  Just then a doctor walked in to the waiting room. He gazed at them with tired brown eyes.

  “You’re here for Selena Perez?” he asked.

  “Yes.” Dallas almost launched himself at the man. “You’re Doctor Innis?”

  “Sam Innis, yes.” He smiled at them and they relaxed right away. “Ms. Perez is actually fine.”

  They slumped in relief and disbelief.

  “Her lung wasn’t punctured?” Mark said.

  “No.” Sam Innis hesitated, torn between trying to protect Selena’s privacy and providing much-needed information. He wasn’t about to mention his patient’s double mastectomy unless one of these men brought it up first.