Tempted by Love

by Jennifer Ryan

  “Fucking bitch killed Davy. She sliced my leg clean open. I’m bleeding like a stuck pig. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Something pounded in the background again and again with each swear word.

  Noel could only guess Brian was hitting something, but put that out of his mind and focused on what Brian said. “Davy is dead? How?”

  “Your sweet-ass partner stabbed him dead center in the chest. He dropped like a zombie with his head cut off. She cut me. Fucking bitch. I put her ass down.”

  “You killed her!” Noel’s heart stopped, then slammed into his rib cage like a jackhammer, threatening to break his ribs.

  “If she wasn’t dead, will be soon. I left her a bloody fucking mess.”

  “I told you to get the folder, not kill her!”

  “If you’d had the balls to take the thing, none of this would have happened. This is on you, Doc.”

  “You were supposed to take it without her knowing.”

  “She didn’t leave the bag at work or in her car. She took it home. I had no choice but to get it back. Besides, I thought you’d be happy about this. It eliminates her from the business. You own the whole thing again. Right?”

  “No, you stupid . . . her share probably goes to her two DEA brothers. You’ve totally fucked us.”

  “I did what I had to do because you didn’t take that shit away from her when you had the chance. Before I took off from her place, I saw the cops, the boyfriend, and two other guys show up. If they know anything, my guess, they’ll be coming for you soon.” Brian hissed in pain. “I can’t get this thing to stop bleeding.”

  “Keep the pressure on until it stops. Clean it and bandage it. And for God’s sake, don’t call me again. This is done. I need to get out of here before the cops show up.”

  “We’re not done, Doc. I’ll be in touch.” Brian hung up.

  Noel didn’t stop to think. Instead of turning right toward home, he turned left. A police cruiser sped toward him from behind, lights flashing, but siren off. Noel watched him turn down his street in the rearview mirror and tried to fight off another wave of panic.

  Three blocks away, he breathed a sigh of relief that he’d escaped.

  But where the hell was he going?

  He thought of his poor, sick Lee. She’d be devastated. She’d blame herself, thinking he’d done all of this for her because of the doctor bills. His girls would blame themselves, too. He’d always told them how important it was for them to get the best education possible. He’d just never figured out how to pay for it all. He wanted them to have the best of everything. He wanted to make them happy.

  And some part of him liked the danger of it all.

  He’d been sinking deeper into debt until Alina came along. He’d already started with Brian, but the cash she put into the business gave him some much needed breathing room. Her smile and kindness brought sunshine into his increasingly dark world. He enjoyed going to work each day. Spending time with her made the day go by faster and made it enjoyable in a way it hadn’t felt in a long time. He’d been in a rut. Stuck on the treadmill of life, every day the same.

  Her youth and exuberance infused him with a renewed appreciation for his work and their customers. With his wife’s future shrinking, he’d seen one with Alina spreading out in front of him.

  He couldn’t believe she was dead. A hole formed in his heart and bled with her loss. Missing her engulfed him with regret and remorse. He didn’t like the way they’d left things. He wished he could make it up to her.

  With his life turned to shit, he couldn’t do anything but run and leave everyone he loved behind.

  A wave of guilt and remorse swamped his heart.

  He’d tried to do right by his family, but only ended up shaming himself and ruining their future.

  He turned down a side street, not knowing where he was going, but understanding one thing for certain: those DEA guys would hunt him for the rest of his life to avenge Alina’s death. He deserved it, and worse.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Alina woke up by degrees, at first just aware of the quiet. The darkness that had claimed her time and again when the pain got too much to bear and sucked her back under receded this time so she knew she was lying in a bed. Her arm throbbed in time with the pulse in the back of her head. She opened her eyes a little at a time and found Jay sitting beside her, his head bowed, arms folded over his chest as he slept in a chair. Mussed hair, thick scruff along his jaw, and a fading bruise and swelling around his eye sent a bolt of confusion and concern through her.

  She glanced around the room, not surprised to realize she was in the hospital, but shocked to see her two brothers on the other side of her bed with their wives asleep in their laps. She turned back to Jay. He sat so close to the bed, his arm pressed against the mattress. She reached down and touched his shoulder with her fingertips.

  Jay’s bloodshot eyes flew open and locked on her.

  “Your lap’s empty,” she whispered.

  He barely spared a glance to her brothers and sisters-in-law before he rose partway, turned to her, buried his face on her stomach, slipped one arm under her back, the other over her hips, and held her close. She rubbed her hand over his shoulders, careful of the IV line attached to it, then brushed her fingers over his hair.

  His arms tightened around her. He wiped his face on the sheet covering her and rolled his head to the side and stared up at her, his eyelashes damp.

  Shocked to see tears spilling from his eyes, she gasped, then laid her hand on his face. “Hey now. I’m okay. It’s all right.” Tears filled her eyes. She couldn’t stand to see him upset like this. “What happened?” She softly touched her fingertips just outside the bruise around his eye. “Are you okay?” Her voice hitched with the emotion clogging her throat.

  He slid his hand out from under her, rose up on his palms, leaned over, and kissed her softly, long and soft and filled with so much love her heart ached. He moved back an inch and stared into her eyes. “I’ve been waiting for you to come back to me for nearly three days. Don’t ever scare me like that again.” He kissed her again, this time adding a bit more punch as his relief washed over her.

  It all came back to her in a burst of memory that swamped her system with a blast of adrenaline and fear. Her heart thrashed in her chest and the pain in her head went from an annoyance she could tolerate to splitting pain.

  Jay leaned back and placed his big hand on her chest. “Breathe, baby. You’re okay. You’re safe.”

  “Did you get him? Did you find it? He has to be stopped.”

  “Shh.” Jay tried to soothe her.

  She tried to get up, but he gently held her down. She didn’t know where she wanted to go, but the panic made her want to run and hide. “He sent them.”

  Jay’s eyes went wide, then narrowed with fury.

  A nurse appeared at her side with a syringe. Alina noticed her brothers and sisters were up and standing around her bed. She glanced at Jay, who didn’t seem to know what to do with her in her frazzled state.

  “I don’t want that,” she told the nurse. “I don’t want to go back to sleep.”

  “It’s for the pain.”

  Alina pressed her fingertips to the back of her head. It hurt like hell, but she needed to stay clear and find out what happened after she was attacked.

  She sucked in a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. “I need to talk to him. Please, can you come back in a little while?” She sucked in another soothing breath. As her heart slowed, so did the pounding in her head.

  Jay rubbed his hand over her arm. “Are you sure, sweetheart? You look like you could use that.”

  “I can wait. It’s getting better.”

  The nurse set the tablet with Alina’s medical information and syringe aside. She checked her IV line, took her blood pressure, then asked her a few simple questions to be sure she had her head screwed on straight. “I’ll let your doctor know you’re awake. He’ll probably be here to check on you within the hour. If you want the pain
meds before I come back, just hit the call button. I’ll bring them right away.”

  Alina closed her eyes for a moment to give herself a chance to relax. Jay’s hand slid into hers. He linked their fingers and held on. “That makes everything better.” She squeezed his hand, then opened her eyes to the crowd around her bed. “You guys didn’t have to stay here.”

  Ashley patted her thigh. “Nonsense. We love you. Jay’s right, you gave us quite a scare.”

  Beck clamped his hand over her calf. “I sent Mom and Dad home to rest, but they’ll be back later. I’ll give them a call and let them know you’re awake. They’ll be beyond relieved.”

  Caden stood with Mia’s back to his chest, his arm wrapped around her middle. Happiness and concern filled his eyes. “Mandi is safe and sound and helping one of our techs sort through the pharmacy database and all the information you uncovered. Noel got away. We’ve got the cops, FBI, and DEA all looking for him.”

  “What about the other guy? I stabbed him.” Her hand trembled with the gruesome memory.

  “He died in the kitchen, sweetheart.”

  Guilt and remorse filled her aching heart for Davy. She would never forget the empty look in his eyes when he died at her feet. She hated Noel for putting this all in motion and making her have to take a life to defend herself. She hated that it happened, hated that she’d done it. But she had survived and somehow she’d learn to live with it.

  She shook off those thoughts and focused on the guy who tried to kill her. “There was another man.”

  Jay, Caden, and Beck exchanged a look, but Jay spoke for them. “We thought there might be someone else involved, but none of your neighbors saw anything. Mandi couldn’t ID the guy we found dead on your floor. Without Noel, we had to wait for you to wake up.” The gruffness in his voice told her that he’d had to face the real possibility she wouldn’t wake up.

  “I saw Noel with him twice at the pharmacy. They argued about something at the back door. Noel lied to me, said it was Mandi and her boyfriend, but then I met Mandi’s new guy and it wasn’t him. Then, the night I was attacked, Noel came to the pharmacy even though I’d told him to stay away that day. He printed something out. I had the copier print it for me again. It was a list of customers who had pain meds. I went after him. I was going to follow him to see who he was giving the pills and names to.”

  Jay’s hand tightened on hers. “Damnit, Alina, why didn’t you tell me? I would have helped you and kept you out of it.”

  She dismissed the anger in Jay’s voice. He wanted to protect and keep her safe. She couldn’t fault him for that. “I thought I had time. At least until I could deliver the files to you that night or the next morning. Noel cared about me. I never thought he’d hurt me.”

  “Two men tried to kill you,” Jay snapped. “Do you have any idea how I felt when you made that call to me?”

  “Like I felt when you texted me after you nearly got blown up.” She gave him a soft smile, letting him know she got it.

  He glared and growled out his frustration. “Alina.” Just her name in warning to not push him. He’d been through a lot these last few days, so she backed off. Maybe now wasn’t a great time to point out that he faced even more danger than she did on a regular basis.

  “Noel sent those men to find the files. Once he had them back, I think he planned to blackmail me.”

  Beck nodded. “We went through the paperwork and your notes. He used your ID to refill orders to implicate you.”

  “Exactly. But the guys he’s working with wanted to go back to just working with Noel with me out of the way and not nosing around in their business. So they tried to kill me again.”

  “Again?” Caden asked.

  Jay swore. “They ran you off the road.”

  She nodded. “When I saw Noel give the guy the list of names, it triggered a fuzzy memory of the accident. I saw him sitting in the busted-up SUV before he drove away and left me there.”

  “I knew it wasn’t an accident.” Jay raked his fingers through his disheveled hair.

  “I didn’t really think so either, but I had nothing to back it up. We thought it was cartel related. It had to do with drugs, just not the way we thought. I wasn’t targeted because you’re DEA. I don’t know who I killed, but the other guy is the one from the car accident, the one Noel seemed to deal with the most. The other guy was just in on it.”

  “So, the two leaders of the group are still at large.” Caden glanced at Beck, some silent communication they’d get on it.

  “I can give you a description of him and his truck.”

  Jay pulled a folder out of a bag on the floor. He laid it on her stomach, opened it, and rifled through the papers with his free hand so he didn’t have to let go of her with the other. “The cops took the lead on the case with an assist from the FBI. The guy you killed had a couple speeding tickets and a petty theft arrest that got pled out to a slap on the wrist. They tracked down all his known associates and interviewed them all to see if they were at your place that day. Everyone alibied out, but they all said Davy spent most of his time with one guy.” Jay held the photo up to her.

  She lost herself in the nightmare. “They broke in through the slider. My first thought was that you guys were right about the alarm system and poor security.” She couldn’t even muster a self-deprecating grin. “He came after me, wanting the files.” The same wash of fear she felt when it happened rushed through her again. “I was blocked in the kitchen, so I used whatever I could to fight him off. I was making tea and threw my hot water in his face and clocked him with the mug. It only made him mad. He pulled the knife and slashed my arm.” She looked down at her bandaged arm and swollen fingers that tingled like her hand had fallen asleep.

  Jay swept the hair from her forehead and tucked a lock behind her ear. “Seven hours in surgery to repair the muscle and ligaments. Doctor says you should regain full use of your hand with some physical therapy once it heals.”

  It hurt, but she wiggled her fingers just to see if she could. Relief shot through her on a wave of adrenaline.

  “I grabbed the knife off the cutting board. He overpowered me and got his arm around my throat. He tried to strangle me. I tried to get free, but my cut arm was useless and I still had the knife in my hand.” She touched her stomach.

  “We wondered about the cuts.”

  “I kept poking myself as I tried to move his arm. I couldn’t breathe. My mind wasn’t working fast enough, but it finally dawned on me to use the knife. I sliced his leg.” Disbelief filled her voice even as she remembered doing it. “It cut deep. He yelled. The other guy, Davy, rushed forward, but the guy behind me shoved me forward. I was holding the knife and it plunged right into Davy’s chest.” She lost herself in the unbelievable image and the surprise she’d felt in that moment. “I didn’t mean to do it.” Conviction filled her voice, because she’d give anything to take it back. “I just wanted to get away. He dropped to the floor. I couldn’t seem to let go of the knife. Blood poured out of him. Everything in his eyes blinked out.” She stared, seeing the poor young guy dead at her feet. “The rest happened so fast. I turned to the man still behind me. He tried to stab me, but I leaned back and he caught me on the head.” She touched the bandage over her forehead.

  “Twenty-nine stitches,” Jay confirmed. “Another fifteen in the back of your head.”

  “I fell back against the counter and landed hard on the floor. I thought, play dead, but I think I was kind of in and out. There was a lot of noise and then nothing but quiet.”

  Beck rubbed her leg. “He ransacked your place looking for the files.”

  She looked up at Jay. “I thought it was over. I needed to hear your voice one more time. I had to tell you I love you and how much it meant to me to have you in my life.”

  Jay turned to her family. “Mind giving us some time alone?”

  Ashley smiled. “Mia and I will be back later. We’ll bring you something sweet and decadent and some magazines to pass the time while you
rest.” Ashley tilted her head toward the door for Mia to come with her.

  “Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing,” Alina called to Mia.

  “You got it.” Mia smiled.

  Jay released her hand and stood back, letting Caden in on his side.

  Beck came to her on the other and leaned down and kissed her cheek. “You’re one tough lady, sis.” He hugged her close.

  She held on to him and whispered, “I learned it from my badass brother.”

  Caden brushed his fingers over her hair, then tugged a lock of it like he used to do when she was little and being a brat. “The worst I thought I had to worry about was some guy not treating you like the princess you loved to play when we were kids when you made Beck and me your valiant knights. I never thought you’d have to go through something like this. I’m so proud of you, sis. You fought hard. Don’t dwell on what happened. You won. You came back to us. That’s all that matters.” Caden leaned down and kissed her cheek. “I love you, sis.”

  “I love you, too.” She glanced over at Beck. “You, too.”

  Beck smiled and gave her thigh a pat, then walked around the bed and wrapped Jay in a bear hug. He stepped back and looked Jay in the eye. “Take care of her, brother.”

  Caden gave Jay a hug, too, then gave him a smack on the shoulder. “Thank you, brother, for making her happy.”

  It touched her deeply to see her brothers say so much to her and Jay with those few words that conveyed their trust and gratitude.

  They walked toward the door to leave her and Jay alone, so they could talk privately.

  “Hey,” she called. When they turned to her, she smiled and hoped they understood how much it meant to her that they accepted Jay. “You’re still my knights.”

  They came back, kissed her cheeks, and hugged her again before walking out the door, leaving her heart filled to overflowing with love.

  “You know what them calling you brother means, don’t you?”

  Jay nodded, rubbing a hand over his chest. His heart had some bad moments these last few days, but his partners and soon-to-be brothers-for-real had touched him deeply. “Yeah. I know.” He wanted to crawl in bed beside her and hold her close, but opted to sit on the edge of the bed and take her hand because he didn’t want to hurt her and they wouldn’t fit. “I thought it might take a while for them to really accept and be comfortable with you and me, but all it took was me going crazy at your bedside for them to see how much I love you.”