Jack didn’t want to leave a message about his convoluted personal life. Or a warning about J.D. that he couldn’t really explain in a short voice message. So he simply said, “Call me. It’s important.”
24
Kate felt relieved that she’d told her parents the truth. She was surprised when her father agreed that she and the twins would be safest staying with Shaw. It was strange to see her father shake hands with Shaw the day her mother came home from the hospital and they parted ways. And to have her mother whisper in her ear, “I like him.”
“Just because my parents accept you as the twins’ father doesn’t change anything between us,” she warned him on the flight back to Houston.
He’d kept his distance during the flight home. But the first night they were back in Houston, she caught him watching her in the bathroom mirror as she changed into her nightgown in the bedroom.
She clutched her nightgown to her naked body and said, “Stop that.”
He came out of the bathroom wearing a pair of the formfitting, thigh-length briefs she found so attractive and said, “Why shouldn’t I look at what’s pleasing to the eye. You’re beautiful, Kate.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” she said, turning her back and pulling her nightgown over her head.
When she turned back around, he was right behind her.
“Like I said, beautiful.”
“Jack, I—”
The smile on his face froze when he heard what she’d said.
She didn’t know why Jack’s name had come to her lips. She hadn’t been thinking of him. She’d been looking at Shaw’s lips and remembering how soft they felt and how good his mouth tasted.
His jaw flexed and he started to turn.
She put a hand to his cheek, turned his face back toward hers and lifted herself on tiptoe. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. And kissed him.
His lips were rigid but quickly softened and pressed back against hers. Urging her to succumb.
Kate backed up quickly. “No, Wyatt.” She put her fingertips to her mouth and stared at him, shocked at how badly she wanted him.
She thought maybe it was the use of his name that made him pause long enough for her to escape.
“I can wait, Kate. However long it takes. I can wait.”
He turned and got into bed. “I figure we can all sleep in tomorrow.”
“I can’t,” she told him as she got under the covers on her side of the bed. “I have patients who need to see me.”
“You’re tired, Kate. You need to sleep.”
“I sleep just fine.” Which wasn’t entirely true. Having Shaw on the other side of the bed disturbed her rest. Especially when their arms or legs got tangled during the night. She thought of the exquisite friction when her smooth leg collided with one of his hairy ones. Her mouth went dry.
“Stay on your own side tonight,” she said, “and maybe I’ll be able to get some rest.”
Despite the fact he stayed on his own side, or maybe because of it, Kate didn’t sleep well. Unfortunately, she had a particularly troubling patient first thing the next morning at the Children’s Cancer Hospital, so she was grateful when lunchtime came and she could take a break.
Kate left the Main Building where she worked at a brisk walk, headed for the Waterfall Café on the second floor of the Mays Clinic. The journey took less than ten minutes, but it was like leaving a dark planet for some bright star.
She caught the elevator down to the third floor, near the Gazebo, then headed for the Skybridge. She usually walked the quarter of a mile or so across the Skybridge to the Mays Clinic instead of taking the mini-shuttle, because she needed the extra few minutes to decompress.
She’d slowed her pace, so she was surprised when she started to gain on the tall man walking in front of her. He reminded her of Jack. Considering she was in Texas, and a lot of men wore Wranglers and western shirts and Stetsons and boots, she didn’t think it was him, especially when she noted the droop of the man’s shoulders and his listless stride.
She suddenly realized she hadn’t spoken to Jack for ten days. She’d left messages asking him to call, but he hadn’t contacted her. She figured he needed time to work out the kinks of living with Holly and Ryan. She realized she hadn’t checked her cell phone for messages today. If he hadn’t called, she’d call him tonight and see how things were going.
And tell him what’s going on between you and Shaw?
Probably not. He knew the worst—that she’d slept with Shaw. She wasn’t sure how much of the rest she would ever tell him.
The guy in front of her really looked like Jack. Kate shifted her angle to look for a SIG at his waist. And found it.
“Jack?” she called. When the man didn’t respond, she hurried forward and said, “Jack? Is that you?”
When he turned, she drew up short at the anguished look in his dark brown eyes. It was clear something dire had happened. Jack looked almost dazed as he stared down at her.
She put a hand on his stiffly starched sleeve and said, “What’s wrong? Are you all right?”
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I work here,” she said, laughing to mask her discomfort. “Remember?”
He put a hand to his brow. “Yeah. That’s right.”
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Were you looking for me?”
“No. But, God, I’m glad to see you.” He pulled her close and hugged her tight.
Kate had trouble catching her breath and pushed against Jack’s shoulders so she could inflate her lungs. She searched his features, wondering what disaster could have wreaked such havoc in such a short time. His red-rimmed, sunken eyes were proof he wasn’t sleeping. His concave cheeks told her he wasn’t eating. His bowed posture spoke for itself.
“What’s going on, Jack?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”
He stepped back and let her go. “It’s a long story. Let’s go find a place to sit down, and I’ll tell you everything.”
“I was headed to the Waterfall Café for lunch.”
“Sounds good.” Jack took her arm and walked her across the Skybridge.
Once they were seated in the café, Kate with a bowl of chicken noodle soup and some iced tea and Jack with a ham and Swiss sandwich, a bag of corn chips and a Dr Pepper, Kate asked, “What’s going on, Jack?”
“Ryan has cancer. Acute myelogenous leukemia.”
“My God.” She reached out and squeezed his hand. “I’m so sorry!”
“He’s already had his first few rounds of chemo, but he’s been having such a bad reaction to it, his doctor is keeping him in the hospital to be monitored. He gets so sick, I can’t stand to watch.”
“Oh, Jack.” Kate reached up to caress his cheek, but he caught her hand before it got there and pushed it away. That seemed odd, but she figured he was too overwrought to know what he was doing. She realized that neither one of them had touched their food.
“Ryan keeps asking when he can go home.” He swallowed hard, then continued, “If he could tolerate the chemicals better, he could go home between treatments. But his cancer is aggressive so he needs the larger dose, and it’s killing me to watch him suffer.”
He pulled free of her touch, balling his hands into fists on the table. “I feel so goddamned helpless.”
“Take a breath, Jack.” Kate had never seen him so rattled. The lack of sleep was obviously taking its toll. “I know things may seem out of control right now, but Ryan’s a fighter. He’s going to come through this just fine. You have to take care of yourself so you’ll be able to take care of him. How’s Holly holding up with all this additional stress?”
“She’s a trooper,” Jack said. “Her strength is amazing. I don’t know how she does it. She’s working in between spending time with Ryan at the hospital, since she can get back and forth pretty easily from the lab where she does her research to his room.”
Kate heard the admiration for his wife in Jack’s voice. “I’m glad Holly�
�s there for you and Ryan.”
Because I can’t be.
Kate felt selfish even thinking about what Ryan’s illness meant to her relationship with Jack. But she couldn’t help it. Jack had already committed to staying with Holly until the baby was born. Ryan’s illness meant he might be staying with his wife and son for far longer than that.
“What’s going to happen to us, Jack?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Feels like a real uphill climb from here, doesn’t it? Maybe we should just cut our losses.”
“I’m not ready to do that.”
“Ryan’s fighting for his life, Kate. I can’t leave him until…things are resolved.”
Kate knew that nothing was certain with childhood cancer. Some kids lived for six or seven years, fighting cancer the whole time, until it killed them. Some kids lost the battle in a few months. Some kids battled the cancer bitch for years before they finally won.
“Why didn’t you call me?” Kate said. “I would have been glad to provide a shoulder to lean on.”
He made a face. “At your home in Houston or mine?”
Kate returned the face with interest. “Metaphorically speaking, of course.”
“I left a message on your cell phone today,” Jack said.
“I haven’t listened to it yet. What did you say?”
“Just to call me. I have some news about your errant husband.”
“Have you found him?” Kate asked hopefully.
“I know where he’s been,” Jack said. “What’s more important, I know what he’s planning.”
“What’s that?”
Instead of answering her, Jack said, “Can you fix it so I can talk to Wyatt Shaw today?”
Kate blanched. “Is that a good idea?”
“I think maybe it is. Especially with what J.D. has planned.”
“Exactly what does J.D. have planned, Jack? Tell me,” Kate insisted.
“Can you set up a meeting with Shaw?”
“He’s picking me up after work. Will that be soon enough?”
“He picks you up? Every day? Same time, same place?”
“Of course.”
“Jesus, Kate. You’re making it easy for J.D.”
“Making what easy? What are you talking about, Jack?”
“J.D.’s been down in Alvin practicing how to blow up a car with an IED. His target could be D’Amato, since D’Amato’s after him. But he might not stop there. He might also want to get a little revenge and target you and Shaw.”
“With an IED?”
“A remotely detonated roadside bomb, to be precise. So it’s important that you and Shaw vary your schedule and pickup locations, so you don’t make yourselves an easy mark.”
“There are only so many places Shaw can pick me up,” Kate said. “Only so many routes we can take to the heliport where Shaw’s helicopter waits for us every day.”
“Heliport? Helicopter? You fly back and forth to his compound?”
Kate flushed. “What’s wrong with that?”
Jack snorted. “Nothing, I guess, if you’re filthy rich.”
“Shaw earned his money honestly,” Kate said.
“So he says.”
“I believe him.”
“All the money in the world isn’t going to help either one of you, if J.D. figures out a convenient spot to plant a roadside bomb along your route.”
“I told you, there are only so many ways we can go.”
“Then get creative,” Jack said.
“Is that why you want to talk to Shaw? To warn him J.D. may be after us?” Kate asked. “If so, I can tell him that.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I need to speak with him about another matter, as well.”
“I’d be glad to give Shaw a message,” Kate offered. “If you don’t have the time to meet with him in person.”
Jack’s lip curled cynically. “Don’t want us comparing notes?”
“That’s not fair, Jack.”
“None of this is fair,” he shot back. “It’s not fair that my son might die. It’s not fair that my wife is pregnant with a child I’ll never really know because I’m divorcing her the day after it’s born.”
His gesturing arm accidentally knocked over his glass of Dr Pepper. He picked up the glass with one hand and grabbed sliding ice cubes with the other. He glared at her as he raked the soda off the table, where it splattered on the floor, and dumped the ice cubes back in the glass. “It’s not fair that the woman I love is living with another man, and I have to rely on him to protect her, because I can’t.”
Kate tugged the glass out of his hand and set it on the table. “Jack, please—”
“No, Kate,” he finished, grabbing a napkin and wiping his hands savagely. “Not a goddamn thing in my life is fair right now.” His chair scraped on the floor as he shoved it backward. He threw the napkin on the table and stood. “I’ll be waiting when you’re done with work. You can take me to wherever you’re meeting Shaw.”
Kate reached out and caught his arm before he could take a step away. She saw before her a man pushed not just to the edge, but all the way over it. She looked up at him and said, “Sit down, Jack. You haven’t eaten your lunch.”
“I’ve lost my appetite.”
“You need to eat. Please, sit down.” She spoke softly. Gently. He resisted the tug on her arm, so she stood and put herself in front of him. “If you don’t sit down, I’m going to make an awful scene.”
“Go ahead.”
When she opened her mouth to yell, he grabbed his chair, pulled it toward the table and sat back down.
Kate gave a silent sigh of relief as Jack picked up his sandwich and took a bite that consumed a third of the sandwich. She forced herself to pick up her spoon and eat a bite of her chicken noodle soup.
“Would it be all right if I bring the twins to visit Ryan while he’s an inpatient at the hospital?” she said.
“I’ll ask Holly, but I think he’d like that.”
“Give me a call and let me know what Holly says. And, Jack?”
“What?”
“Don’t let so much time go between calls. If we’re going to survive this separation, we need to stay in touch.”
He was chewing and had to swallow before he could speak. “That works both ways. How are the twins?”
Kate realized it would be cruel to tell Jack how well the twins were getting along with Shaw. “They’re doing fine. Shaw enrolled them in a private school in The Woodlands.”
“I don’t think J.D. would hurt them, but you might want to employ the same precautions with their commute back and forth to school that you use with your own.”
“I’m sure Shaw will have Bruce do whatever’s necessary to keep them safe.”
“Bruce?”
“He was Shaw’s bodyguard. Now he watches the boys.” Kate saw the look on Jack’s face and said, “Bruce looks like a gruesome giant, but he’s polite to me and kind to the twins. They like him.”
“Do you find all this as strange as I do?” Jack said.
Kate found herself smiling. “Weird and fantastical.”
“Yeah,” Jack said, finishing the last of his corn chips and noisily crushing the bag into a tight ball. “Bizarre and peculiar. That describes my life perfectly.”
Kate wondered how soon their lives would get back to normal. And what normal would look like when they did.
25
“Hey, Boss. We got trouble.”
“I see it, Jimmy. Be ready to get us out of here in a hurry,” Wyatt said to his limo driver.
When Jimmy reached toward the glove compartment, Wyatt said, “Leave your Glock where it is.”
Wyatt’s gaze was riveted on Kate, whose arm was linked with Jack McKinley’s as they exited the Main Building at M.D. Anderson. His heart was racketing in his chest. His shoulders were tensed, his hands fisted expecting bloodshed as he stepped out of the limo.
You can’t have her. She’s mine.
The couple sto
pped two feet in front of him. Kate looked up at Jack, as though waiting for him to speak.
Wyatt wasn’t afraid of any man. But he was terrified that Kate was going to leave him. He felt sure she’d brought Jack here not as an officer of the law, but as the man she loved, and that the two of them intended to prevail upon him to return the boys and allow Kate to go home.
Which he would do when it snowed in hell. It had taken him too long to find her. He had no intention of letting her go anywhere. Especially not with a twofaced son of a bitch like Jack McKinley.
“What’s going on?” Wyatt asked in his calmest, deadliest voice.
He could see the Texas Ranger was anxious and edgy. He half expected the lawman, who was wearing both badge and gun, to arrest him for kidnapping. Or make some plea on behalf of D’Amato. Instead, McKinley put a courteous finger to the brim of his Stetson and said, “Shaw.”
Wyatt lifted his chin, returning the greeting. “Sergeant McKinley.” Then he focused his turbulent gaze on Kate and asked, “What’s he doing here?”
“We need to talk,” the Ranger said.
“Kate, get in the car,” Wyatt ordered.
He saw her body stiffen, watched her shoulders square and her eyes narrow, and knew he’d made a mistake.
She let go of the Ranger’s arm to shift the strap of her purse higher on her shoulder, and said, “Jack has something he wants to tell you.”
That sounded ominous. Wyatt wanted Kate where he could make a quick getaway if things between him and the Ranger got nasty. He took a step forward, forcing Kate to take a step to her right, closer to the open door to the limo, where broad-chested Jimmy now stood, powerful arms akimbo, looking like the bodyguard he was.
Wyatt turned to the Ranger and said, “Talk.”
“J.D.’s been practicing how to make a roadside bomb. It may be for D’Amato. Or he might decide to use it on the two of you.”
Shaw lifted a surprised brow. He felt some of the tension ease out of his shoulders. It seemed McKinley was here as a lawman, all right, but not to help Kate get away from him, or on some mission for D’Amato.
Shattered Page 20