Homeland Security (Defenders of Love Book 2)

by Unknown

  ***

  "Where the hell did they go?"

  "I don't know, Kaiden. There are no turns from this road."

  "Maybe they went a different way?"

  "We both saw them go this way."

  "Can't you go any faster, Kee?"

  "Not if you don't want us to crash!"

  As they careened around a tight curve in the road, something caught Kaiden's eye. "Hey, did you see that?"

  "See what?"

  "Something… something, I don't know. Do you smell that?"

  "Smells like something's burning."

  "Keegan! Stop the car!"

  "What?"

  "Stop! Stop this thing and let me out!"

  "But, Katie?"

  "I think they wrecked!"

  Keegan slammed on the brakes so hard the truck spun in a complete circle as dust and dirt filled the air around them. His brother hit the gas and drove right to the edge of the road where black smoke curled up from the valley below. Kaiden jumped from the truck and started running down the embankment. He could hear Keegan calling to him but he kept going. He had to get to Katie before the gas tank caught fire.

  A huge explosion rocked the mountain as flames shot into the air and the valley filled with thick black smoke.

  "Katie!" he screamed her name over and over as the flames burned loud and hot. He slid the rest of the way down the embankment without thinking about anything but Katie.

  Her name rang in his head over and over and over again. The voice louder than the fire, louder than Keegan calling after him, louder than the sound of his racing pulse as fear and adrenaline gripped him in its iron fist.

  "Get back, brother! There might be a secondary explosion!"

  He heard Keegan calling out to him, knew he spoke the truth. He ignored his twin. All he could do was pray over and over that Katie had survived. Maybe she had been ejected? Maybe she had gotten out before the truck caught fire. Maybe—and most likely—she had died in the crash and now burned in the SUV.

  NO!

  She wasn't dead. He could feel it in his very soul. Then why couldn't he find her? Keegan had finally caught up with him. His brother put an arm around him as they watched the fire consume the remains of the vehicle. "I'm so sorry, man."

  Kaiden wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "Son of a bitch. Son. Of. A. Bitch!"

  "Shhh…! Do you hear that?" Keegan held a finger to his lips and placed a hand on his brother's arm. Kaiden tried to shrug him off but Keegan insisted he listen.

  Above the sound of the fire and burning vehicle, there was something. Something so quiet he wasn't even sure he heard it. Then it happened again.

  "Help!" It was her.

  "Katie!" he called out.

  "Help us, Kaiden!"

  "There!" Keegan pointed to a large rock. "It's coming from over there!"

  They took off at a run, arriving at the rock at exactly the same time. Behind the rock they found Katie and Nathan Marks. She had a cut on her face and her neck, blood in her hair and a black eye but she was alive.

  "Katie!" He started to go to her but Keegan held him back.

  "Hold on, brother. Be careful, you don't know what sort of injuries she has."

  "I'm okay, Keegan. Just a little sore. I think I hit my head too." She reached up and touched her hair, fingers coming away with fresh blood.

  Kaiden squatted next to her and took her in his arms. "It's okay now. You're going to be okay."

  She buried her face in his shoulder. "I have no idea how many times we rolled over. I was sure we were going to die."

  "What exactly happened here?" Keegan, always the voice of reason, asked.

  "The truck went out of control and we went over the side. The fire started and I knew if I didn't get us out of there, we would die. Nathan wouldn't wake up so I dragged him over here."

  Keegan had his phone out calling for help.

  "I thought he was going to kill me," Katie whispered next to Kaiden's ear. "I tried to get him to stop the truck. That's how we ended up here—I grabbed the wheel from him." She started to cry then, large wracking sobs. Kaiden held her as she cried until they heard the sound of sirens in the distance.

  "I caught Nathan. Is the case over now?" Katie looked up at him through damp lashes.

  He couldn't help but smile. "You did a great job, honey."

  "I get my life back now…" Her body fell limp in his arms.

  "Katie!" She didn't answer. "Kee—she's unconscious!"

  "It's all right, brother. Help is on the way."

  "I'm taking her up top!" Without waiting for his brother to reply he scooped Katie up in his arms and started the long, arduous trek up the incline. "It's okay, Katie. I'm going to get you help. Please just hang on."

  By the time he made it up to the edge of the road, emergency vehicles had begun to arrive. An ambulance had parked next their truck. Kaiden ran to it and started banging on the doors. "Help! We need help! You have to help her!"

  He had never felt so helpless in his entire life. Katie's limp body hung in his arms. "Why won't you wake up, sweetheart?"

  One of the paramedics pulled open the back of the ambulance and dragged the stretcher out of it. "Here. Put her here!"

  Kaiden placed Katie on the stretcher but almost refused to let her go.

  "You have to step back, sir, and let us work," the second paramedic said. "What happened to her?"

  "She was kidnapped at knife point and the kidnapper rolled his truck. I have no idea what happened in between those two things."

  "And who are you?" the first paramedic demanded.

  Kaiden pulled his id from his back pocket. "Agent Kaiden James, Homeland Security. I am working the case."

  The second paramedic worked at putting in an IV line while the first paramedic was busy examining Katie. "She took quite a beating today."

  "Will she be all right?" Kaiden asked, afraid to hear the answer.

  "We have to get her to the hospital right now. That head injury—well, it's tough to tell how bad it really is."

  He caught sight of Keegan coming up over the rise, Nathan Marks tossed over his shoulder. The paramedics were lifting Katie into the back of the ambulance. It was his case, he knew he had to deal with Marks but he couldn't stand the thought of leaving Katie. After Keegan deposited Marks on a stretcher he waved his brother over. "I should go with Marks."

  "I can stay with him," Keegan said.

  Kaiden sighed heavily. "Not if I hope to keep my job."

  "How about I ride with Katie? I'll make sure she knows you wanted to be there. Heck, if she hit her head hard enough I might even be able to convince her I'm you." The look Kaiden shot his brother shut Keegan right up.

  He didn't like the idea but knew that under the circumstances there was no better solution.

  "Okay, fine. But don't you dare leave her side until I get there, and no funny business."

  "Please, brother! I wouldn't do that to you."

  Kaiden paced in front of Keegan. "I know you wouldn't. I don't know why I said it. Just make sure they take care of her, okay?"

  Keegan clapped his brother on the shoulder. "You know I will." He turned to the paramedics loading Katie into their bus. "I'm going with you!"

  "And you are?"

  Keegan whipped out his ID. "Agent Keegan James." Fortunately, no one asked him what agency he was with.

  "All right, sir. Load up, we're heading out!"

  Kaiden watched as the ambulance carrying his brother and Katie drove away. Anger turned his vision red as he clenched his fists and reminded himself he had a job to do. And do it he would. He stomped over to where Nathan had been strapped to a stretcher receiving IV fluids. He was awake as a paramedic asked him questions.

  Kaiden elbowed the paramedic out of the way as he retrieved a pair of handcuffs out of his back pocket. "Mr. Marks, you are under arrest." He slapped one cuff on Nathan's wrist and the other to the bar on the side of the stretcher.

  "For what?" Nathan mumbled through swoll
en lips.

  "The list is long but topping it is conspiracy to commit domestic terrorism."

  "Whoa! This dude's a terrorist? I don't get paid enough for that." The medic backed away from the stretcher.

  "Just do your job and let me worry about him. I want him alive so they can fry him when he goes to court."

  "The accident was her fault. She grabbed the wheel!"

  "I suppose being kidnapped at knife point was her fault too?" Kaiden snapped.

  "I wasn't going to hurt her. I just wanted to get to the airport."

  "So you cut her neck open? You're a real piece of work, Marks."

  "Katherine's dramatic. That's why I kicked her to the curb. So much drama all the time."

  It took all of his self-control not to pummel Nathan right there at the back of the ambulance. "Katie is too good for you."

  "If you really believe that then you deserve her."

  Chapter Sixteen

  "Well, this is an interesting change of pace." Kaiden smiled as he sat in the chair next to Katie's hospital bed.

  "It doesn't feel right, being on this side of things."

  He reached over and took her hand. "It's okay, the doctor says you can go home in a bit. They want to check your vitals one more time and review the results of the MRI. You took quite a whack to the head."

  Katie reached up and touched the bandage on her head. "Doc says I was lucky, the wound wasn't too bad. How's Nathan?"

  Kaiden growled. "Does it matter?"

  "Well, yeah, it does. I hate him but I don't want him dead."

  "He's fine. On his way back to Virginia Beach as we speak."

  "You didn't have to take him?"

  "No, I made other arrangements. I figured I'd hang out with Ma for a few days."

  "Oh?"

  "Unless you are in a hurry to get back to the beach too?"

  She shrugged. "I've got nothing to go back to."

  "Does that mean you are going back to Staunton?"

  "I don't know. I mean, there's really nothing there for me either. My parents spend most of their time on the road in their RV."

  "Why don't you take a couple of days and think about it. Ma says we can hang at her place as long as we want to."

  A knock on the door sounded and the doctor appeared. He was a young guy, barely out of med school, but there was something about him that Kaiden really liked. "All righty, Ms. McCoy, it looks like you are good to go. I'll have the nurse come by with the discharge papers. You take it easy for a couple of days. Your body is going to ache something fierce from that tumble you all took."

  "Thanks, Doctor. I promise to take it easy."

  "I promise she will too," Kaiden said.

  "Good, good, good. You take care now." The doctor bid farewell and disappeared into the hall beyond the door.

  A minute later the nurse showed up, Katie signed everything and they were on their way back to the mountain.

  ***

  The doctor was right. Every muscle in her body ached. Clara had made her a cup of hot tea and sent her to bed the minute she and Kaiden entered the mountain house. Now, three hours later, her body screamed at her as she tried to sit up. The room tilted and spun as she made it to an upright position.

  Once everything around her stood still, Katie lowered her feet to the floor and attempted to stand up. She swayed violently, grabbing for the bed when a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around her.

  "Whoa there, young lady. Where exactly do you think you are going?"

  "I was going to go and find you but I have this splitting headache that makes me dizzy."

  "That's going to happen for a couple of days. You probably shouldn't go anywhere without me from now on." His words were light hearted but his blue eyes smoldered to a deep grey.

  "Is that doctor's orders?" she asked.

  "Yes, ma'am. Didn't you hear? I'm your doctor now." He gently lowered her back to the bed and fluffed the pillows before insisting she settle back against them.

  "I will get very lonely staying in this big empty room by myself." She scooted over to one side of the king sized bed and patted the space beside her. "Will you stay with me for a while, Doctor James?"

  He smiled broadly. "Let me clear my calendar. Oh wait, already done." He climbed up and settled down next to her. Kaiden was on his side, his head propped up on his hand when he took her hand in his other one. Katie watched as he traced circles across her palm with his thumb.

  "I'm sorry for all the trouble I have caused you and your family."

  "Trouble? What do you mean?"

  "Well, if I hadn't been involved with Nathan—"

  "The Nathan Marks case was my job, remember? You were part of that case. You didn't personally cause me any trouble."

  "I let him kidnap me."

  "I was going to ask you about that."

  Katie looked away. She remained quiet for a good long time before she spoke again. "I heard all the gunshots and the yelling. I was afraid you were hurt—or worse."

  "And so you left the truck I told you not to leave and tried to help."

  She nodded. "Nathan must have been running away from you when he found me."

  "Well, he won't be bothering you any more for a long, long time."

  "How can you be so sure?"

  "He confessed. To everything. Mommy and Daddy refused to finance his defense fund so he is stuck with a court appointed attorney. Apparently he didn't think he held a snowball's chance in hell of getting off so he confessed."

  "What did he exactly confess to?"

  "It was all a huge get rich quick scheme. With all the concerns of pandemics and things, Nathan got involved with a pharmaceutical company who wanted to cash in on people's fears. They were going to stage an outbreak of Legionnaires' to scare people enough to convince them they needed a series of immunizations against various diseases. Turns out the vaccinations were all placebos. He has been singing like a canary—several high profile arrests are going to be made."

  "And the vials?"

  "They have been recovered. Nothing was done with them. The plan was for that big meeting in Norfolk so we stopped them in time."

  "He killed Mandy."

  "I know. He confessed to that too."

  "He told me she had an accident. Like she tripped and fell into a bullet. Bastard. I hate him and I was mad at Mandy but I never wished her dead."

  "I know you didn't."

  "I simply can't believe Nathan got mixed up in all that and I let him drag me into it."

  "You didn't let him do anything. He is an evil, deceitful man and you trusted him. Nothing wrong with that."

  "I'm a real fool, trusting my heart that way."

  "We've all made mistakes, Katie. The good Lord knows I've made a few. My ex-wife, for instance. Somewhere deep inside I always knew she wasn't the woman for me but I hated to be alone and I thought she loved me. At least for a while. I don't think I would change it though. I learned a lot about myself from my marriage and later the divorce."

  "All I learned from Nathan is that I can't trust my own judgment."

  "That brings me to something else we need to discuss."

  She knew it was coming. She didn't think it would come up so soon. Katie needed to figure out what to do with her life. She couldn't stay at Clara's house forever and she really didn't have much of an apartment to go home to. Not that she would ever be comfortable there again anyway. No job, no home, no future. She would now be all alone and homeless. Yay.

  When did she become such a whiny child?

  She was a nurse and a damned good one. So she had to move again, no big deal. The hospital wouldn't dare give her a bad reference after the way Kaiden handled them. She could start over. She'd done it before.

  "I'm not going back to my apartment. I mean, I won't live there again."

  "I figured as much. I arranged to have someone go in and clean the place up. All your things are packed and ready to go wherever you want them to go."

  "Kaiden! You didn't ha
ve to do that."

  "It wasn't really me. The agency owed you for trashing your place. I made them follow through."

  "Thank you. It will make it easier to move out if I don't have to deal with all that stuff."

  "I don't want you to leave Virginia Beach."

  She looked at Kaiden, trying to gauge his words against the feelings in her own heart. "I don't want to leave."

  He smiled and looked extremely relieved. "Good. I am glad we agree on that."

  "I need to find a job."

  "All taken care of." Keegan popped his head around the corner from the hallway. "Ma called a friend and hooked you up. When you are ready, she will tell you the details."

  "I don't think I can accept another arranged job. It didn't work out so well last time."

  "Our mother doesn't blow smoke for anyone, she vouched for you because she liked the way you took care of Kaiden when he was shot." Keegan said.

  "And, I'm hoping my boy there will finally hook himself up with a decent woman!" Clara called from down the hall. "You'd be doing me a huge favor. I'm not getting any younger, you know! I need to see these boys taken care of before the good Lord calls me home to the great mountain in the sky!"

  Katie looked from Kaiden's expectant face to Keegan's smiling one. She had never felt as comfortable with anyone other than her own parents as she did with the James's. She had been a dandelion in the rose garden of the Marks family and, although no one ever said anything directly, she knew it all along.

  "All right, I will talk to your mom about the job."

  "Nothing to talk about!" Clara yelled to her. "The job is yours—it's in the trauma care department. You start a week from Monday!"

  Ten days. Plenty of time to get settled in a new apartment.

  "Thank you, Clara!"

  "You're very welcome, honey!"

  "So, it's official then? You will stay in Virginia Beach?"

  She smiled at Kaiden and touched his cheek. "It's official."

  He leaned over and kissed her then. His lips found hers in a frenzy, the force knocking her back against the pillows. She snaked her arms around his neck and held Kaiden to her.

  "Umm, I'm gonna go and see what Ma is making for dinner," Keegan said as he slipped out of the room.