Red Zone

by Sherri Hayes

  “Oh, but I think you were. The question is, why?”

  Rebecca turned away from him, facing the bright lights where Gage was currently lying on a bed with his hands behind his head. “Your phone calls were disrupting my concentration, that’s all. I’m trying to watch Gage’s photo shoot.” That was a girlfriend-type thing to say, right?

  He stepped up behind her, and she tried not to react. That was until she felt something pressing into her lower back.

  “Who are you?”

  “I don’t know what you mean. I’m Gage’s girlfriend.”

  “Maybe, but I doubt that. I’ve known Gage since his senior year of college, knew he was going to be a star with that throwing arm and his good looks. The women ate him up in college. Even the moms. He had them all drooling. Not even he saw his potential.”

  “But you did.” Everything was starting to fall into place for Rebecca.

  “Yes. I did.”

  “What changed?”

  “Smart girl.” Even facing away from him, she could almost see the creepy smile.

  Gage hoisted himself from the bed and jogged back behind the panel to change again.

  “Let’s take a walk,” Maxwell said, pressing the gun into her back. The barrel dug into her skin.

  Rebecca didn’t hesitate. Her first priority was to keep Gage safe. That was her job. Having confirmed where the threat was coming from, the best thing to do was to get Maxwell as far away from Gage as possible.

  She stayed silent until they were outside. The town car was gone. They weren’t scheduled to be finished for a couple of hours yet. There were a few people about, but no one close.

  “This way,” he said, guiding her down the length of the building.

  “You’re the one who sent the pictures. The one who wanted him to get rid of me.”

  “Shared that with you, did he? Too bad he didn’t listen.”

  “But why?”

  He snorted and pushed her to walk faster.

  “You’re distracting him. He has everything he needs to succeed—talent, looks. But instead of taking advantage of opportunities, he’s busy chasing after sluts like you. I’d thought the others were bad, but you . . . I knew you were going to be a problem that first day he showed up in my office with you in tow.”

  They reached the corner that would remove them from view. She had no doubt that he intended to kill her. He’d tried to scare her off with the picture and letter. Since that didn’t work, he’d moved to what he felt was the next logical step. Apparently, Maxwell didn’t believe in paying women off. To him, death was obviously the easier option.

  Just as they were turning the corner, she heard Gage’s voice. He must have noticed she was gone, and was coming after her. Foolish man.

  She wasn’t the only one who heard Gage’s voice. Maxwell heard it, too, and his response was to shove her into the alley with enough force to separate them. It was the first opportunity she’d been given to go on the offensive since they’d been outside, and she took advantage of it.

  Using the momentum from him pushing her, she fell forward, dropping to the ground onto her hands. She kicked out her right leg in a sweeping motion, knocking Maxwell’s feet out from under him.

  He stumbled backward, hitting the pavement hard, but didn’t release the gun as she had hoped. Instead, he refocused on her, ignoring the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching, and pointed the gun.

  Rebecca reached for her firearm, releasing it from its holster in record time, but she wasn’t quick enough. Maxwell fired his gun, sending a burning pain through her upper arm.

  Luckily, it wasn’t her shooting arm, and her gun was already in her hand by the time the bullet sliced into her flesh. Gritting her teeth, she lifted her gun, aimed as best she could through the pain, and fired before he could finish the job he’d started.

  The gun fell from Maxwell’s hand, landing with a thud onto the pavement. His eyes were wide, as if in shock, before his head fell backward and he collapsed onto the ground.

  Her arm flopped to the ground, her fingers still gripping the gun. With the threat eliminated, the adrenaline that had fueled her actions dissipated quickly, leaving the pain in her arm to take over. Her vision began to fade in and out, darkness tempting her.

  The last thing she saw before her eyes closed was Gage’s panicked face as he came around the corner.

  Chapter 32

  “Rebecca!”

  Gage ran to her side, his hand immediately going to the wound on her shoulder. There was blood everywhere, and there was nothing around to use to try to stop it. He tried his hand, but it didn’t work very well. The red liquid continued to seep at an alarming rate through his fingers.

  “What happened?” Jenny’s panicked voice drew his attention away from Rebecca. He focused in on the scarf she was wearing around her neck.

  “Give me your scarf.”

  “What?” she said, bewildered.

  “Give me your scarf!”

  He vaguely registered her fingers trembling as she unwound the scarf from around her neck. Once it was free, she thrust it in his direction and stepped back as if it were a snake about to bite her.

  Lifting Rebecca’s arm, he wrapped the thin scarf tight around her bicep. It didn’t take long for the scarf to change color from its original powder blue to red, but at least the bleeding appeared to have slowed.

  “Do you have a cell phone on you?”

  “Um . . . I—”

  “Cell phone? Yes or no?” His voice was cutting, but he didn’t have time to deal with Jenny. Rebecca was hurt and bleeding. She needed medical attention.

  Jenny fumbled in her pocket for what felt like an eternity given the seriousness of the situation, before handing him her phone. He snatched it from her and began dialing. Thankfully, the operator answered almost immediately.

  “Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”

  “I need an ambulance. She’s been shot.” Gage tried to stay calm, but all he could do was think about the possibility of Rebecca dying. He couldn’t lose her. Not when he’d just gotten her back.

  “Someone’s been shot, sir?”

  “Yes!”

  “Okay. What’s your location?”

  Gage had to turn to Jenny for help with that one. She was still staring wide-eyed at the two people lying on the ground in front of her, but she spouted off the address without hesitation, which he relayed to the dispatcher.

  “Okay, sir. Police and ambulance are on their way. What is your name?”

  “Gage. Gage Daniels.”

  “And can you tell me where the shooter is, Gage?”

  “He’s right here. He was shot, too. She shot him.”

  “So there are two victims. Are they both still breathing?”

  “She is.” Rebecca’s chest moved up and down. It wasn’t the smooth motion it usually was, but it told him she was still breathing, still alive.

  “What about the shooter?”

  “I don’t know, and I couldn’t care less. She . . .”

  “She what, sir?”

  “She was protecting me.”

  “Gage, what do you mean, she was protecting you?”

  “She’s FBI. She must have realized Mel was . . . and followed him out here or something. Oh, Rebecca, why didn’t you tell me? Come get me. Something?” He wasn’t talking to the operator anymore. His fingers grazed the side of her cheek, leaving streaks of blood from where he’d touched her wound earlier.

  “One of the victims is an FBI agent?”

  That drew his attention back to the phone. “Yes. She was undercover. Protecting me.”

  The next ten minutes were a blur for Gage, which involved someone throwing a robe over his shoulders, paramedics, police officers, and a lot of curious onlookers. Someone was taking pictures, but he was too focused on Rebecca to care. He kept touching her, trying to get her to open her eyes, to talk to him, but nothing worked. Her eyes remained closed.

  One of the police officers recognized him, and it
worked in his favor. They loaded Rebecca into an ambulance quickly after checking that the scarf he’d put around her arm was doing its job. He wanted to ride with her, but they wouldn’t allow that. Instead, one of the officers—the one who had recognized him—offered to let him ride to the hospital with him.

  Before he hopped into the police cruiser, Jenny appeared with an armful of his clothes. He hadn’t even thought about the fact that he was only wearing the underwear from the photo shoot. When he’d walked out from behind the panel after changing into yet another color of underwear, he’d searched for Rebecca in the darkness, just as he had the times before. When he hadn’t seen her or Mel, he had gone searching.

  The ride to the hospital was quick. Sirens blared as they sped through traffic lights. Gage held tight to the clothes in his hands and kept glancing back at the ambulance behind them. He must have looked as frazzled as he felt because the officer didn’t ask him any questions.

  They pulled up to the entrance of the ER, the ambulance still following them, and Gage jumped out of the vehicle. By the time he had Rebecca in his line of sight again, she was surrounded by people. Everyone had a hand on her, checking for various things. He knew he needed to stay back and let the doctors do their job, but that only made him feel even more helpless than he already did.

  Mel. He couldn’t believe it. And why?

  “Sir, are you the one who called this in?” asked a small woman in colorful scrubs.

  “Yes.”

  He saw the paper and pen in her hands. She needed information on Rebecca, and he had to give it. There was no one else.

  “What do you need to know?”

  The woman ushered him inside the hospital and into a small administrative room. Rebecca had already been wheeled behind a set of large doors. He could no longer see her.

  “I need to get some personal information on her.”

  “All right.”

  “Her full name?”

  “Rebecca Carson.” He paused. “Agent Rebecca Carson. Shit. I need to call Hansen.” The woman looked confused. “Her partner. I don’t have his number.” He paused again. “Her phone. I need her phone. She would have had it on her.”

  The woman noticed his growing distress and gave him a sympathetic smile. “It’s all right. They’ll have to remove all her belongings and clothing before surgery anyway. I’ll have them brought down to you.”

  “Yeah. Okay.” He pressed down hard on his legs, willing them to stop bouncing up and down.

  “Now, what is your relationship to the victim?”

  “She’s my girlfriend.”

  The woman hesitated for a moment. While she was considering her next question, Gage’s attention was drawn by a commotion in the hall. When he looked out, he saw another stretcher being brought in with his manager on it. His face was covered with an oxygen mask attached to a pump, and there was another medic with his hands on his chest counting out compressions. It looked like Mel was in a lot worse shape than Rebecca, but Gage couldn’t bring himself to care. The woman he loved was fighting for her life because of that man. His manager. A man he’d trusted.

  “Sir?”

  He turned his attention back to the woman.

  “Do you know if Rebecca is allergic to any medicines?”

  “No. Not that I know of.”

  “Any medical conditions we should know about?”

  He shook his head.

  “Pregnant?”

  Gage opened his mouth to say no and then stopped.

  “I don’t know. Maybe.” The words came out not much louder than a whisper. Realization hit him like a ton of bricks. Last night had been amazing, wonderful, and completely spontaneous. Even still, he’d been sexually active since he was sixteen, and never once in all those years had he ever forgotten to use protection. Not once. The thought of being inside her had overruled anything else, including thoughts of digging a condom out of his bag.

  “All right. I’ll get this information up to the doctors. Do you have contact information for her next of kin?”

  “Um? Oh. Yes. Her sister. Megan. I . . .” Gage reached for his phone, but realized it wasn’t there. He’d taken everything out of his pockets when he’d gotten undressed, and placed it in the drawer. Jenny must not have thought to retrieve those items. “I don’t have my phone on me. I’ll use Rebecca’s phone to call her sister. She would want to know.”

  The woman nodded. After writing a few more things on the paper, she walked him down a long hall to a set of elevators. The doors opened several minutes later, and they stepped inside.

  “They’ve taken her up to surgery. You can sit in the waiting room up there, and the doctor will come out and talk to you once it’s done. I’ll have them bring you her things so you can call who you need to.”

  He nodded.

  “An officer will also be up to talk to you. They’ll need to get a statement from you on what’s happened.”

  “That’s fine. I just . . . I need her to be okay.”

  She gave him a sad smile as the elevator doors opened. They walked out onto a floor that looked almost exactly like the one below.

  They rounded a corner, and she pointed out another set of doors. “The waiting room is right through those doors. You need to check in with the nurses’ desk, let them know who you are and who the patient is. There are vending machines there if you’re hungry and bathrooms . . . if you’d like to change.”

  Gage glanced down, and for the first time since this whole thing happened, he cracked a little smile. “I guess I should put on some clothes, huh?”

  “Unless you’d like to give all those ladies in there a show.” Her smile no longer had that edge of sadness.

  Gage thanked her and walked into the waiting room. The officer who had given him a ride earlier was there waiting for him. He stood off to the side as Gage went to the desk and registered as he’d been instructed.

  When he was finished, he walked over to the officer. “Mind if I put some clothes on first?”

  The officer smirked. “No. Go ahead. I’ll wait.”

  “Thanks.”

  Gage’s clothing seemed to weigh him down even more as he walked back into the seating area and toward the officer. He noticed a few people staring at him, but he wasn’t sure if that was because they recognized who he was, or because they’d seen him earlier talking to the cop. At the moment, he wasn’t sure he cared either way.

  The officer stood as Gage approached. He was holding a plastic bag. Rebecca’s things. He handed the bag over to Gage, and they both took a seat.

  “I need to ask you some questions, Mr. Daniels,” he said, taking a notebook out of his pocket. It seemed like everyone had questions for him when all he wanted to do was lie in a bed, holding the woman he loved and making sure she was safe and well.

  “Sure,” Gage said, clearing his throat.

  For the next half hour, Gage explained how he’d met Rebecca and what had been going on with his stalker. The officer took everything down in his notebook, asking questions to clarify when needed. There were a few questions Gage couldn’t answer. He didn’t know why Rebecca had gone outside with Mel, and he didn’t know what had led up to them both shooting each other.

  As they were wrapping up, Rebecca’s phone rang. Gage had to dig it out from the bottom of the plastic bag in order to answer it. He checked the caller ID. It was Hansen.

  “Hello.”

  There was a long pause on the other end before Hansen responded. “Daniels?”

  “Yeah. It’s me.” He couldn’t disguise how weary he felt.

  “What happened? Why are you answering Carson’s phone?”

  Gage ran a hand through his hair and slumped back in his seat. The officer stood and handed him a business card. “Call me if you think of anything else.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Where are you?” Hansen’s tone regained Gage’s attention.

  “At the hospital. Rebecca was shot. She’s in surgery.”

  “Maxwell.” />
  “Yeah.”

  “Is he in custody?”

  “I don’t know. She shot him, too. I saw them bringing him in, but I have no idea where he is now.”

  Gage listened to what Hansen was saying, trying to answer his questions the best he could, but after a certain point, all Hansen’s words started running together.

  When their conversation ended, he stared at the phone for several minutes before he made the call he was dreading. Gage knew his brother’s number by heart. He hoped someone was home.

  “Daniels residence.” Megan’s voice was cheerful as she answered. He knew he was about to change that.

  “Megan. It’s Gage.”

  “Hi, Gage. How are things? Is my sister treating you right?”

  “Is Paul home?”

  “Oh. Yeah. He’s here. Sorry. You probably want to talk to him. I’ll just go—”

  “No! I mean . . . I need to talk to you. Not Paul.” He took a deep breath. “Rebecca’s been shot.” He heard her gasp.

  “Is she okay?”

  “I don’t know. She’s in surgery now. Does she have any allergies? Medications she’s allergic to? They asked me, and I didn’t know.”

  “No. Nothing that I know of, anyway.”

  He nodded even though she couldn’t see him.

  “I think you need to come be with her. Can Paul get you to the airport?”

  He heard movement in the background. He figured Paul must have gathered something was going on based on Megan’s end of the conversation. Gage could hear her talking to someone, most likely his brother, but it was muffled. The next voice that came on the phone wasn’t Megan.

  “What’s going on?” Paul demanded.

  Gage sighed. He knew that tone. Paul was in cop mode. The problem was that Gage wasn’t in the mood for his big brother’s protectiveness.

  “Megan can explain to you on the way. She knows most of it. Can you drive her to the airport? I’ll get her a flight and text you with the information. I think she needs to be here for her sister.”

  Paul muttered a curse.

  “I’ll get her there, but you are going to have some explaining to do, little brother.”

  “Fine. Whatever. Just not now.”